Cummins – Robin Johnson http://robinjohnson.net/wp The Life and Career of the Actress Robin Johnson Fri, 23 Oct 2020 16:00:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 A face of the 80’s http://robinjohnson.net/wp/a-face-of-the-80s/ http://robinjohnson.net/wp/a-face-of-the-80s/#respond Sun, 16 Aug 2020 18:25:53 +0000 http://robinjohnson.net/wp/?p=5304 UK poster advertising Robin Johnson as the star of TIMES SQUARE, using the artwork from the UK poster. Most of the Times Square posters have some identifying information on them — a copyright notice, the film’s local distributor, a code number — but not this one, so we have to go on what’s on it.

The logo and the artwork are from the UK movie poster, which was also (the artwork at least) used across Europe. The text is in English, and the AA is a now-replaced British Board of Film Censors rating. (Also, I got this item from a seller in England. Back in April. Current events kept me from doing anything with it until recently.) So I think I’m safe saying that what we have here is a piece of British Times Square promotion, probably produced by EMI Films, almost certainly in early 1981, basically pushing Robin Johnson’s status as Robert Stigwood’s “female Travolta.” As we’ve seen, starting from almost the second the film was released, the promotion tactics became focused ever more closely on its third-billed star, a situation that would continue around the world for the next two years. And in my opinion, an unfortunate victim of this strategy was Robin herself, as the unflichingly honest criticisms she gave of the movie in her interviews caused RSO to reappraise her value, ultimately deciding that her willingness to trash their product in public outweighed her talents as an actress in that product, causing RSO never to cast her in anything again, while simultaneously keeping her under contract so she couldn’t use her obvious abilities in the service of some other film company to compete against Robin-less RSO projects. Again, in my opinion.

So much for a face of the 80s. But even more to the point… that’s an illustration. It isn’t really her face. Obviously the illustration by poster artist Cummins was used so people would make the connection between this poster and the movie poster, but still… Maybe if I find the time I’ll doctor up a version of what I think this poster should have looked like.

If anyone cares, the image here isn’t really an accurate representation of what the actual physical object looks like, because I’ve cleaned it up so much. It is a good representation of what you’d see if you were looking at the poster, though.

 

Would you like to know more?

Times Square U.K. Movie Poster
Times Square Movie Poster, Belgium
Locandina Times Square (Movie Poster, Italy)
“Toda la Basca!” … a Times Square – Times Square movie poster, Spain

 

 

Robin Johnson – a face of the 80’s
poster, AAT ID: 300027221
30″ (H) x 40″ (W)
Inscription:
ROBIN JOHNSON
a face of the 80’s
starring in
TIMES SQUARE
AA
(work)

Robin_Johnson_UK_promo_poster_1981_1080px.jpg
1442 px (W) x 1080 px (H), 96 dpi, 359 kb (image)

 

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

]]> http://robinjohnson.net/wp/a-face-of-the-80s/feed/ 0 Locandina Times Square (Movie Poster, Italy) http://robinjohnson.net/wp/locandina-times-square-movie-poster-italy/ http://robinjohnson.net/wp/locandina-times-square-movie-poster-italy/#respond Thu, 19 Oct 2017 15:59:57 +0000 http://robinjohnson.net/wp/?p=3593 “And for the first time on the screen, Robin Johnson…”…

Italian movie poster Text: TIMES SQUARE ROBERT STIGWOOD presenta "TIMES SQUARE" con TIM CURRY* TRINI ALVARADO • e per la prima volta sullo schermo ROBIN JOHNSON con PETER COFFIELD • HERBERT BERGHOF • DAVID MARGULIES • ANNA MARIA HORSFORD produttori esecutivi KEVIN McCORMICK e JOHN NICOLELLA diretto da ALAN MOYLE prodotto da ROBERT STIGWOOD e JACOB BRACKMAN sceneggiatura di JACOB BRACKMAN soggetto di ALAN MOYLE e LEANNE UNGER produttore associato BILL OAKES una produzione EMI - ITC IDIF Technicolor • STEREOFUTURSOUND Selegrafica 80-Roma

The Italian movie poster features the American logo and the British painting of Nicky, but although it has some of the yellow-orange tint of the Belgian poster, it retains the artist’s signature by her knee and the attention to detail absent from the Belgian version. It’s definitely a reproduction of the painting, rather than the repainting featured on the Belgian poster.

I assume that the big space at the top is for the exhibiting theater to print its name and address and/or the showtimes.

TIMES SQUARE
ROBERT STIGWOOD presenta “TIMES SQUARE”
con TIM CURRY* TRINI ALVARADO • e per la prima volta sullo schermo ROBIN JOHNSON
con PETER COFFIELD • HERBERT BERGHOF • DAVID MARGULIES • ANNA MARIA HORSFORD
produttori esecutivi KEVIN McCORMICK e JOHN NICOLELLA diretto da ALAN MOYLE
prodotto da ROBERT STIGWOOD e JACOB BRACKMAN sceneggiatura di JACOB BRACKMAN
soggetto di ALAN MOYLE e LEANNE UNGER produttore associato BILL OAKES una produzione EMI – ITC
IDIF
Technicolor • STEREOFUTURSOUND
Selegrafica 80-Roma

 

 

Times Square movie poster
poster, AAT ID: 300027221
Italy ; 70.5 x 33.8 cm. (work)
Times_Square_movie_poster_Italy_1981_1080px.jpg
1080 px (H) x 517 px (W), 96 dpi, 297 kb (image)

 

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

]]> http://robinjohnson.net/wp/locandina-times-square-movie-poster-italy/feed/ 0 Times Square U.K. Movie Poster http://robinjohnson.net/wp/times-square-u-k-movie-poster/ http://robinjohnson.net/wp/times-square-u-k-movie-poster/#respond Tue, 18 Oct 2016 14:44:43 +0000 http://robinjohnson.net/wp/?p=2730 "Times Square" UK movie poster, featuring a painting by Cummins of Nicky over a collage of Times Square theater marquees Text: "GO SLEAZE!" ...IN TIMES SQUARE CUMMINS TIMES SQUARE ROBERT STIGWOOD Presents "TIMES SQUARE" Starring TIM CURRY·TRINI ALVARADO And Introducing ROBIN JOHNSON Also Starring PETER COFFIELD·HERBERT BERGHOF·DAVID MARGULIES·ANNA MARIA HORSFORD Executive Producers KEVIN McCORMICK·JOHN NICOLELLA Directed by ALAN MOYLE Produced by ROBERT STIGWOOD and JACOB BRACKMAN Screenplay by JACOB BRACKMAN Story by ALAN MOYLE and LEANNE UNGER Associate Producer BILL OAKES An EMI-ITC Production Soundtrack available on RSO Records and TAPES RSO Distributed by EMI Films Limited. EMI A Member of the THORN EMI Group. PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY W. E. BERRY LTD. BRADFORD

 

After all the work that went into creating the logo on the cover of the UK Press Kit, and the poster-worthy image that had been used to promote the movie’s production in the 21-28 June, 1980 Screen International, EMI went with this image for the UK movie poster. The painting of a frightfully gaunt Nicky, signed by “Cummins” (about whom I’ve been unable to find any information), was used for all the UK movie advertising, and for several of the other European posters. The film title and “‘Go Sleaze! …in Times Square” tagline are in a jagged faux-handwriting that’s probably supposed to look like graffiti, but doesn’t.

The small inset photos are the same ones used as insets on the inside of the UK Press Kit. The photo of Tim Curry is #4 from that Press Kit, previously published in The Aquarian in April 1980 and the September-October 1980 Prevue. The one of Robin and Trini is TS-22-11, or 1, from the UK Press Kit, depending on which copy I’ve pulled out first. The posters and ads that used this painting didn’t all use the same photos as the insets.

"Times Square" Screenplay by Jacob Brackman, 1979, 129 pp Text: 1 EXT THE STARSHIP DISCOVERY NIGHT The hot ethnic nightclub on 42nd Street, near Port Authority. Flashily dressed kids mill around the door. NICKY, a dark skinny while girl dressed in a man's leather jacket and a biker's cap, walks through the area, ignoring the others. Her.air is deliberate She is about 16. She pulls a laundry cart. The camera follows NICKY around to the back of the club. She tries the door. It is locked. Very loud music is coming through the wall. NICKY unpacks a guitar, a frayed speaker-amp and a radio cassette player from the cart. Lashed into the cart is an old car battery to power it all. She starts playing along with the band inside the club. What she lacks in skill she makes up in imagination. Soon she is taking solo licks and posing for an imaginary audience. The music from inside flares as the back door of the club opens and an angry black ROADIE shouts to her. ROADIE What the fuck do you think you're doing? She ignores him. She juts her jaw out defiantly. He walks over, We can hear you inside. Get outta here. NICKY Do you own this land I'm standing on? Do you fuckin' own the airwaves around here? NICKY continues playing. Another man joins the first. 2nd ROADIE This is a restricted area. We're asking you politely to disappear. CONTINUED
Nicky is first described in the 1979 screenplay as a “dark, skinny white girl.” We know Robin didn’t fit Allan Moyle’s original idea of what his Nicky looked like, winning the part through sheer charisma and making it hers. It’s possible that Cummins was working from a combination of photos of Robin and earlier descriptions of Nicky, coming up with this angry, and hungry, creature of the streets.

 

 

Times Square UK one-sheet movie poster
one-sheet poster, AAT ID: 300196848
27″ (W) x 40″ (H)
Inscription:
"GO SLEAZE!" …IN TIMES SQUARE
CUMMINS
TIMES SQUARE
ROBERT STIGWOOD Presents "TIMES SQUARE" Starring TIM CURRY·TRINI ALVARADO And Introducing ROBIN JOHNSON Also Starring PETER COFFIELD·HERBERT BERGHOF·DAVID MARGULIES·ANNA MARIA HORSFORD
Executive Producers KEVIN McCORMICK·JOHN NICOLELLA Directed by ALAN MOYLE Produced by ROBERT STIGWOOD and JACOB BRACKMAN Screenplay by JACOB BRACKMAN
Story by ALAN MOYLE and LEANNE UNGER Associate Producer BILL OAKES An EMI-ITC Production Soundtrack available on RSO Records and TAPES RSO
Distributed by EMI Films Limited. EMI A Member of the THORN EMI Group.
PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY W. E. BERRY LTD. BRADFORD
(work)
1981 UK Poster_1080px.jpg
1080 px (H) x 734 px (W), 96 dpi, 396 kb (image)

 

TIMES SQUARE, p. 1
Screenplay by Jacob Brackman
1979

 

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

 

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