Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Classic Television Showbiz's Late Late Show: Skatetown USA starring Flip Wilson, Joe E. Ross, Billy Barty, Patrick Swayze, Scott Baio, Ruth Buzzi, Ron Palillo, Gary Mule Deer, Murray Langston and Leonard Barr (1979)


Maureen McCormick: Like a disco, there was a lot of cocaine being done on the set. Many people were open about it. 

 Bill Kirchenbauer: We shot it at the Palladium and interesting enough, across the street at the Aquarius Theater, at the very same time, Linda Blair was shooting Roller Boogie. Same time, same exact movie! They had roughly written some scenes and a lot of it was just improvised. Joe E. Ross was in that and Flip Wilson. Got to meet Flip, but he was a little angry at the time. He was doing a lot of cocaine. Then again, who wasn’t? Cocaine was everywhere back then. I even did my fair amount. It was a bunch of twenty-something kids putting on a movie. It was wild, it was crazy, people were hanging around. You know?
 

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3 comments:

  1. BooksteveOctober 30, 2012 at 2:28 AM

    Y'know, my first thought was that any movie with Leonard Barr and Joe E. Ross couldn't be all bad. Gary Mule Deer even! Always liked him. Then I started watching it. Even for what it is/was...this thing SuCkS!!!

    This goes a long way toward explaining why I have little to no memory of 1979.

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  2. A MooseOctober 30, 2012 at 4:05 PM

    As I admitted on the twitter, I saw this in the movies when it was first released in 1979. Also, I own the one sheet and soundtrack.

    On one of my birthday visits to San Francisco- this was on a double bill with "Roller Boogie" at the Castro Theatre. That the night after seeing "Xanadu"

    I also recall seeing "Stan" Greg Bradford make many appearances on the Merv Griffin show.

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  3. BooksteveOctober 30, 2012 at 4:57 PM

    Apparently Bradford went on to work as a composer/cameraman in the adult industry.

    Here's an article where he says some interesting things about some powerful people.

    http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/david_geffen.htm

    With what we now know (presumably) about Merv, the many appearances on his show that the previous commenter references might be seen in a new light.

    Or not.

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