According to William Goldman, when he first wrote the script and sent it out for consideration, only one studio wanted to buy it, and that was with the proviso that the two lead characters did not flee to South America. When Goldman protested that that was what had happened, the studio head responded, “I don’t give a shit. All I know is John Wayne don’t run away.” Goldman rewrote the script, “didn’t change it more than a few pages, and subsequently found that every studio wanted it.”
William Goldman said that many young people saw the super posse in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ as a metaphor for the government and authority during the years of anti-war protests. He said his students said the similarity lay in the relentlessness by which both “would hunt you down.”
With nine wins, ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ currently holds the record for the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs). It won for picture, actor (Robert Redford), actress (Katharine Ross, direction (George Roy Hill), screenplay, cinematography, film editing, sound, and score. It won every award it could, as its tenth nomination was a dual nomination for Best Actor.It was the top-grossing film of 1969, and today is considered one of Hollywood’s greatest westerns.Paul Newman said this was the most fun he’d ever had making a film~ and that he and Robert Redford drank a lot of beer in Mexico.Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed in 1968 in Utah, Colorado, and Mexico. It cost $6 million to film, but earned over $102 million at the box office in 1969, which would be around $725 million currently, adjusted for inflation.Continue reading →
With a cigarette held between her scarlet red lips, Olivia Newton-John electrified John Travolta in the legendary movie musical of 1978. Throwback to the most scandalous rock’n’roll look of cinema.
In 2019 Julien’s Auctions organized a ‘Grease’ auction. Among the 500 items offered-up for auction were the hot black leather jacket, and skin tight leather pants worn by ‘Sandy,’ in the legendary finale scene. Much of the proceeds were donated to the Olivia Newton-JohnCancer Research Institute, created by the actress herself as she has battled breast cancer since 1992. The total sale of those two pieces alone fetched $405,700 dollars, or about 360,000 euros. Spanx founder Sara Blakely bought the pants.
GREASE was the highest-grossing movie of 1978. For a while, GREASE was the third highest-grossing movie of all time, behind Jaws (1975) and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977).Continue reading →
Brigitte Bardot singing on a Harley-Davidson built by Parisian custom motorcycle pioneer Maurice Combalbert. The H-D Flathead was used by Bardot as she performed her wacky love proclamation to the iconic motorcycle on her 1967 French television special— Brigitte Bardot Show. Serge Gainsbourg was watching her performance of his “Harley-Davidson” song from the wings. She included “Harley-Davidson” as one of 15 songs on her 1968 album Brigitte Bardot Show.
Do not miss the video below of Brigitte Bardot’s performance, and the cool stage set.
Bo Diddley was so important and influential to early rock ‘n’ roll music that The Animals covered his song ~ “The Story of Bo Diddley!”
Bo Diddley was a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, and with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself. In the 1950s, as a founder of rock ’n’ roll, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and a few others reshaped the sound of popular music worldwide, building on the template of blues, Southern gospel, R&B and postwar American vernacular culture.
David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve who starred together in the 1983 movie, The Hunger.
“He’s worth idolizing. He’s extraordinary. That was a really interesting period. I wasn’t supposed to have kids, and I’m the oldest of nine and had mothered all of them, so I wasn’t ever in a mode where I was looking to settle down and raise a family, so that definitely changes the gene pool you’re dipping into.”
Van Halen in Osaka Castle Park, Osaka, September 1979. (Photo by Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images)
The year was 1979, and Van Halen was taking over the FM radio airwaves across the country. The world had never seen a band this badass. A true party band that defined stadium rock, good times, and well… chasing babes. I was 9 yo so babes were not yet in my sites, and music videos weren’t even around yet. You had the album, lyrics sheet, and what you could read about in a music magazine. I never even saw these photos of Van Halen rollerskating in Osaka, Japan until 30 yrs later… Mind blown.
Tom Zutaut (who signed Guns N’ Roses) on Slash’s heroin OD, where he died and was brought back to life, that freaked the shit out of Axl Rose… “They found him dead near an elevator in a hotel somewhere. I don’t know how long it took for the ambulance to come but he was blue for a long time, but they got him back.
I think Axl genuinely believes that the soul of Saul Hudson left his body when Slash OD’d and there is a replacement Saul that has taken over Slash’s body and Axl truly does believe that. And I think that has been the greatest stumbling block in getting the band back together. Whoever is in Saul’s body right now, it seems like Slash to me.”
The photographer Robert Davidson will soon be officially releasing these famous images of Frank Zappa on the crapper, affectionately known to fans as “ZAPPA KRAPPA” or “PHI ZAPPA KRAPPA”, for the first time since they were originally shot back in 1967. The image below of Zappa on the toilet has gained cult status over the years, and is being admitted into the permanent collection at the National portrait gallery in London. The bizarre story behind the 50 year search for the lost negatives has now finally come to light…
The Selvedge Yard 