Movie Quote Weekends

"You're dirt, Terry! He'd never touch you!"

Movie Quote Weekends

"She said she looked like Janet Jackson!

Freaky Fridays: Allan Carr & Grease

Allan Carr was well-known around Hollywood, but he didn't make it to the big time until he became involved with the original high school musical Grease. The movie, which starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton John catapulted all involved to superstardom, including producer Allan Carr.

John Tesh: After Dark

Rather than assume that this was a fluke or dumb luck, Mr. Carr decided that he was a super producer and quickly put into production Can't Stop the Music, a vehicle for the biggest act at the time- The Village People. Rounding out the cast were a pre-stardom Steve Guttenberg and a pre-op Caitlin Jenner. It was supposed to be the biggest hit of the new decade, produced by the biggest producer in the world. Sadly, none of these things came true. The film was a massive flop, tarnishing Mr. Carr's reputation.

Can't stop the screaming...

So, perhaps suspecting that just maybe he wasn't the producing genius he thought he was, Allan went back to the well for Grease 2. Of course, the film would feature everyone's favorite characters, right? Not exactly. At this point, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John were still riding high and commanding huge pay days. Of course, it would require a very large payday to bring them back for a sure fire hit. Mr. Carr, on the other hand, was fairly certain that the success of Grease was due to its concept and his genius, so he quickly rewrote the script to exclude just about everyone audiences liked from the first film. Aside from Didi Conn, all of the other actors except for the teaching staff were not asked to return. In their places were ragtag replacements who were obviously supposed to make people think of the original characters.

If you squint hard enough, maybe this will look like a good idea...

The film did introduce the world to the gorgeous Michelle Pfeiffer, but other than that, it mainly felt like a pale copy of the first film. The movie was a huge disappointment and Paramount canceled further plans for a Grease franchise. Where the Boys Are '84, released two years later, would be the final nail in Allan Carr's film producing career. Sadly, it wouldn't be the most embarrassing thing Allan Carr was involved with.

Allan Carr's "Can't Stop the Trainwreck"

Transamerica's Hollywood Adventure

The iconic Transamerica Pyramid has become a symbol for San Francisco, often used alongside the famed Golden Gate Bridge as an establishing shot in various films. Many do not remember how controversial the construction of the tower initially was. Now it has become synonymous with the City by the Bay.

When the top floor was used as a board room for Transamerica, an unlikely film director gifted the facility with a telescope. It was Francis Ford Coppola. Mr. Coppola had a private editing studio in Berkeley, right across the bay. When he was editing Apocolypse Now, which he was producing for United Artists, which was owned by Transamerica at the time, he sought to soothe the jittery executives by setting up the telescope and training it on his editing studio across the bay. This way, he joked, they could personally supervise his progress.

It also turns out that the architect who designed the building- William Pereira- once worked in Hollywood himself, sharing an Academy Award for best art design. One of his most famous buildings with a Hollywood connection is The DISNEYLAND Hotel, designed for Hollywood mogul Jack Wrather, who built the hotel for as a favor for his friend Walt Disney.

Famous Babies

In Ghostbusters II, Dana Barrett's lovable baby Oscar stole the show. Not only was he the film's MacGuffin, he was also completely adorable.

This baby was played by twins- Will & Hank Deutschendorf. 

The boys were the nephews of famed country music singer John Denver who had changed his last name for obvious reasons. Want to feel old? The boys are now all grown up and teaching martial arts classes.

Gene, Richard, Dan & Eddie Trade Places

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor were comedy gold in the 1970's and 1980's. It's not surprising that Paramount wanted them to star in its latest comedy Trading Places.

Unfortunately, Mr. Pryor was going through a difficult time. He had just had a drug related incident in which he accidentally set himself on fire. He was in no shape to do any film at the time, so Paramount turned to a younger comedy duo- Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.

WC Fields' Earthquake

The WC Fields comedy International House seems like a regular sort of comedy that one would expect from him at the time. On its face, it certainly doesn't seem special.

This totally holds up and doesn't look creepy or inappropriate in any way...

But the filming of the movie took place during the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, which was felt up and down Southern California. This pre-dated modern earthquake building codes, so damage was extensive and devastating.

This was also the first major disaster to strike the area since it became the home of the major studios. While the tremor was felt in Hollywood, the movie colony didn't suffer the same damage as other areas. As it turns out, the cast of International House was filming during the tremor and they dealt with it in a calm, authoritative manner. The camera was left running and the resulting footage was made available to newsreel producers who included the amazing footage in their reports on the disaster. Newspapers worldwide reported on the film and its hectic moments on set. An amazing story, but it's now believed to be untrue. Some say that WC and the director faked the footage as a publicity stunt. True or not, it worked, bringing a lot of attention to the film.