“Yesterday’s Children” stirs fond memories of past

IRIB Channel Five, Tehran TV, held the commemoration ceremony named “Yesterday Children” Tehran’s National Grand Hall on Friday.

A nostalgic old big screen TV set was on stage on top of which were several TV aerials. The TV set reminded of the time when the organizers of children’s program which were honored at the ceremony aired their productions

At the beginning of the ceremony, broadcast of a song from the children’s TV series “School of Mice” and screening parts of “Singer Cat” and “Daddy Long Legs” brought smiles to the faces of the participants.

Davud Rashidi, Asadollah Yekta, Mansur Zabetian, Maryam Nashiba, Razieh Borumand, Morteza Ahmadi and Bahram Shah-Mohammadlu are among the guests.

Firstly, the one-time anchor of children’s programs Elaheh Rezaii and Giti Khameneh went on stage as they were honored.

After that, Asadollah Yekta was honored for his role in “The Fat and the Thin” TV series for children.

Morteza Ahmadi, one of the dubbers of “Pinocchio” cartoon, went on stage. “I am 86. I began my career when I was 16 and I always bow toward my beloved audiences,” he said.

The director of several children’s series including “House of Grandma” and “School of Mice” Marzieh Borumand was also honored. Appearing on the stage, she asked her colleagues to be more meticulous about their productions.

A part of “School of Mice” in which actresses Leyla Hatami and Leyli Rashidi played was screened and the audiences applauded the two absent artists.

After that, parts of the children’s film “Golnar” were screened and the film producer Vahid Nikkhah-Azad was also honored.

The applause of audience brought tears to the eyes of Children’s anchor Majid Qannad. He went on stage but said he could not speak since he had become too emotional.

After that, some popular songs from children’s films “My Mother”, “The House of Grandma” and “The Little Ali” were broadcast. The audiences honored the memory of deceased actor Khosro Shakibaii who sang “My Mother”.

Bijan Birang was also honored at the ceremony. He reminded the audience of the memories he shared with his deceased friend and colleague Masud Rassam in producing films for children.

Adel Bozdudeh was honored for his TV series “Ta-be-Ta Stories”. Mehrdad Nazari known as Hassani was also honored and asked Bahram Shah-Mohammadlu to go on stage.

Bahram Shah-Mohammadlu who is known as Mr. Hekayati, the storyteller in a TV series called “Under the Dark Blue Dome” was honored at the event.

At the ceremony, the writer of “Majid Stories” Hushang Moradi-Kermani was also honored however he could not attend due to illness and his son accepted the award on his behalf.

Azadeh Purmokhtar, Hamid Jebeli and Iraj Tahmasb were also honored at the event.

Photo: Actor and dubber Morteza Ahmadi (R) receives an award from Iranian radio and TV programmer Mansur Zabetian during a ceremony held on March 11, 2011 to honor a number of veteran children’s TV programmers. (Mehr/Omid Vahabzadeh)