Cleo Club – Robin Johnson

U.K. Lobby Cards (post 2 of 3)

Sean — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 15:06:01 +0000

This shot of Nicky joining in as Pammy dances at the Cleo Club appears to me to have been taken within seconds of TS-104-17A/7 from the US Press Materials folder, and this color 8×10, the purpose of which I still don’t know. (Its post is here.) Although the presence of Miguel Pinero and the various extras would seem to indicate all three were taken on the actual day of the shoot, they were shot either during a run-through or an unused take (or an unused portion of a used shot), as none of them match up to the action as shown in the film, even allowing for the different vantage points of the still and movie cameras.

Another shot of Pammy and Nicky performing, or having just finished performing, “Your Daughter Is One” in the WJAD studio. It’s a shot we haven’t seen so far. The word “Rickenbacker” is clearly visible on the guitar’s headstock, so this photo belongs to the series of photographs from before it was removed (as it appears in the film) (yes, that’s from a different scene, but it’s the same guitar).

Here Pammy and Nicky push their first television off a rooftop. A shot of them throwing their last one appeared in the songbook and inside the soundtrack album. In the film, Pammy doesn’t hold the box flap back, and Nicky is barely visible behind the box until after the TV is gone. However, another shot that was obviously taken a split second after this one appeared way back as a tiny part of the collage that made up the double-sided promo poster. In that shot, the television is obviously on its way out of the box and down. Of course they didn’t really let the TV’s plummet to the street if it wasn’t shown happening in that shot, but it never occurred to me before now that not only did they catch them, they had to catch them completely intact right after they left the shot so they could be thrown off again in retakes. Either that, or part of the budget went for multiple identical junk television sets.

[Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado as Nicky and Pammy in the Cleo Club]
[Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado as Nicky and Pammy in the WJAD studio]
[Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado as Nicky and Pammy drop a television]
Lobby cards (AAT ID: 300208593)
8 in (H) x 10 in. (W)
1981, Great Britain (works);

Times_Square_UK_Lobby_Card-4_manual_crop_1080px.jpg
1080 px (W) x 855 px (H), 96 dpi, 515 kb
Times_Square_UK_Lobby_Card-5_manual_crop_1080px.jpg
1080 px (W) x 855 px (H), 96 dpi, 592 kb
Times_Square_UK_Lobby_Card-6_manual_crop_1080px.jpg
1080 px (W) x 854 px (H), 96 dpi, 648 kb (images)

[Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado as Nicky and Pammy drop a television]
detail from [Double-sided promotional poster, outside] (image)
image 3 from 2-sided poster_800px.jpg
800 px (W) x 686 px (H), 96 dpi, 411 kb (image)

vlcsnap-2016-07-23-20h33m29s240.png
853 px (W) x 480 px (H), 72 dpi, 449 kb (image)
frame capture from Times Square (1980)
captured 2016-07-23

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

Times Square Press Material folder (post 4 of 5)

Sean — Sat, 23 May 2015 14:37:25 +0000

TS-69-34A
Robin Johnson is a runaway teenage product of the streets who dreams of becoming a rock music star and lets nothing get in her way to make it to the top in “Times Square.”

TS-72-8A
Robin Johnson (right) is determined to become a rock music star, Trini Alvarado is her fellow teenage runaway and their wild, bizarre escapades in New York make them minor media celebrities when reported by an all-night radio disc jockey in “Times Square.”

On the left is the same photo as this one, cropped differently and of course without the autograph.

On the right is the photo that may be the one used the most to promote the film. We’ll have a better idea about that once I’m done with all this stuff. Until just now, I always thought it was a cropped version of this photo (that version of which I’ve only seen on the Web and believe to have been cut from a UK lobby card), but now I realize they were taken a second or two apart. Look at their arms.

TS-113-4A
Trini Alvarado is co-starred as the troubled teenage daughter of a New York politician whose lack of attention turns the girl into a teenage runaway and a try at becoming a dancing attraction in a sleazy nitery in “Times Square.”

TS-78-2
Peter Coffield (left), ambitious New York politician and widower, confronts disc jockey Tim Curry when the all-night performer encourages Coffield’s runaway daughter to continue her rebellion against authority in “Times Square.”

As always, there is no shot in the film that matches up either of these two photos. Mr. Pearl does throw Johnny into the table as at left, but the shot cuts from a close-up of Pearl grabbing Johnny and pushing him to a close-up of Johnny landing; there is no shot of the two of them. Also, Johnny’s hand never touches the mic stand as it does in the photograph. There is nothing even close enough to bother with a frame grab.

We see Pammy looking in the mirror fairly clearly in the film, but just like these photos, in the film we see it from her father’s perspective, and she’s not quite in the same pose as in the photo. Here’s the closest frame from the film:

TS-69-34A/4
1080 px (H) x 862 px (W), 96 dpi, 297 kb (image)
TS-72-8A/14
1080 px (H) x 856 px (W), 96 dpi, 311 kb (image)
TS-78-2/16
1080 px (W) x 856 px (H), 96 dpi, 289 kb (image)
TS-113-4A/6
1080 px (H) x 862 px (W), 96 dpi, 257 kb (image)
black and white photographic prints, 8 in (H) x 10 in (W) (works);
1980
inscriptions: [on photos] TS-69-34A/4; TS-72-8A/14; TS-78-2/16; TS-113-4A/6;
(on borders) TIMES SQUARE
AFD
©1980 Associated
Film Distribution

vlcsnap-2015-04-12-11h40m58s217.png
853 px (W) x 480 px (H), 72 dpi, 872 kb (image)
frame capture from Times Square (1980)
captured 2015-04-12

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

Pammy’s Dancing Career Cut Short

Sean — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 08:03:00 +0000

Despite recent appearances, this is a Robin Johnson site, not a Times Square site. But, for better or worse, there’s far more Times Square material out there than for the rest of her career combined. Plus, the vast majority of her fans (though not all) found her through Times Square. So I’ll be posting the occasional Times Square item that Robin isn’t in. And today, I’m also breaking my general rule about one item at a time, because these two are so close together in the film.

The first is one of the 8″ x 10″ color prints on Kodak paper, and shows Pammy in the middle of demonstrating her new moves to another Cleo girl. The second is the second of the slides, and shows her reacting to seeing her father in the club. Again, they don’t match up to the shots used in the film, mostly because the POV seems to be standing directly behind where the other dancer is sitting. The first shot might conceivably have been taken during the actual take, but Trini’s hands and feet are in different positions in the second one than they appear in the film.

This scene is notable for containing one of the few appearances of the “Doomsday Book,” the giant ledger Pammy bought to document her and Nicky’s lives in a scene cut from the film, and which Nicky methodically burns page by page at the end. It’s visible lying on the keyboard in the first picture. It’s the one thing Pammy grabs as she runs out of the club.

That’s all I have to say about that. I’ve been unsuccessful so far in figuring out the location of whatever bar served as the Cleopatra. If I ever do work it out, you’ll be the first to know.

Here, for tradition’s sake, are the closest frames from the film:

Times Square Color Production Still / “Walk on the Wild Side”
color photographic print, 8 in (H) x 10 in (W) (work);
866 px (W) x 1080 px (H), 96 dpi, 595 kb (image)
1979/1980
inscription: [on back:] [handwritten:] 60-6A

Times Square slide 63-25
35mm color slide, 2 in (H) x 2 in (W) (including mount) (work);
727 px (W) x 1080 px (H), 96 dpi, 573 kb (image)
1979/1980
inscription: [on back:] [handwritten:] 60-6A

vlcsnap-2014-12-21-16h16m55s188.png
vlcsnap-2014-12-21-16h17m28s198.png
vlcsnap-2014-12-21-16h18m21s178.png
853 px (W) x 480 px (H), 72 dpi (images)
frame captures from Times Square (1980)
captured 2014-12-07

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+