According to IMDb, Times Square opened in Australia on February 6, 1981. Robin and her mother went there to continue RSO/EMI’s publicity tour, and I’m pretty sure she made a brief but strong impression on Australian television discussing her discovery and career-to-come. As this was just before the home consumer video recording market took off, none of those appearances survive as far as I know.

Strangely, all the interviews she gave to magazines seem to have been published well after she would have returned to America, making them useless as promotion for Times Square.

The daybill is essentially the same as the ad that ran in Movie 81. There was also a full-size poster, with again the same basic design, which I don’t have.

A pressbook similar to the American one but more elaborate was distributed in Australia. I’ve seen photos of it but not found a copy.

“There’s a hot new talent, Robin Johnson in Robert Stigwood’s Times Square…”

Times Square was still in theaters in London when the February Movie 81 came out in Australia and editor John Fraser made the above announcement.

The two-page spread later in the issue is comprised of “An Appraisal by Terry O’Brien,” which from here in the 21st Century reads more like a promotional press release than a critical review. It is, though, an early adopter of the tone of most of the remaining publicity for Times Square, shifting its focus as hard as it can from the movie overall to Robin herself. “She is a find of the first order!”

The neon nerve centre of young New York, tuned to a furious rock beat—amps up, full power on, with all-night disc jockey Johnny (Tim Curry) perched in his skyscraper studio waiting for the moment.

TIMES SQUARE
AN APPRAISAL BY TERRY O BRIEN

Like the music which accompanies it on a pulsating soundtrack of rock, Times Square is a story of the streets. It’s about rebellion on a small scale, a search for some kind of basic freedom and a need to live life rather than simply exist. By setting the story in Times Square (surely the definitive microcosm of all that is good and bad in pre-packaged urban society), there’s a perfect, ready-made background of excitement, urgency and even danger that is inherent in that milieu. Surviving day to day in this environment is Nicky Marotta (Robin Johnson) a free spirit with aspirations of becoming a rock star. Her very wayward, uncompromising manner lands her in a psychiatric hospital for tests. While there, she meets Pamela Pearl (Trini Alvarado), a shy girl whose personality, unlike Nicky’s, has been submerged by her environment. She is, in fact, at quite the opposite end of the spectrum to Nicky. Moreover, Pamela’s father is a politician who has promised to clean up the seedier side of Times Square. The two girls escape from the hospital and, in their own way, take on the establishment with acts that supposedly symbolise their rejection of the plastic culture. Their exploits are covered and encouraged by Johnny LaGuardia (Tim Curry), a disc-jockey who turns the couple into celebrities with a following which allows Nicky, ultimately, a brief moment of fame as a rock singer. Another aspect of the story is the effect that each of the girls has on the other. Nicky’s life-style allows Pamela to experiment with her own and to break out of her protective shell. (It’s interesting that once she has had her freedom she decides to return to her father, though, one suspects, on her own terms.) Conversely, the poetic and sensitive Pamela brings about a change in Nicky who finds she has her first real friend and, subsequently, a basis for believing in herself. Robin Johnson, in her movie debut, is a sensation. Her Nicky is vibrant, exciting and fragile—and one of the most interesting movie characters in years. She is a find of the first order! Trini Alvarado is her perfect foil and willing pupil. Tim Curry’s eccentric exploitive disc-jockey is a far cry from his Frank N’ Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but is, again, a fascinating performance. The movie’s feeling of rebellion and non-acceptance of some of society’s values is reflected in the music—a constant background of rock by some of today’s more prominent performers. James A. Contner’s cameras have caught some spectacular shots of New York, especially from atop the building from which Johnny broadcasts. Times Square is a showcase for some new and little-seen talent.

Producers: Robert Stigwood
Jacob Brackman
Director: Allan Moyle

The real treasures here are the accompanying photographs. Within an assortment of publicity stills we’ve seen before are two more behind-the-scenes shots, one of Trini, Tim, and Robin on Pier 56 on the Hudson River, and one of Robin and Trini during the shooting of the concert in Times Square. The three-shot must come from the same break in shooting that produced the top photo on page 22 of Film Review, Vol. 31 No. 1, and the black and white photo in the UK Press Kit, and which I’ve noted before are among the very few photos from Times Square with the actors in costume smiling directly at the camera.

The shot of Robin and Trini probably was taken within moments of the slide of Robin in Aggie Doon makeup on 42nd Street; Nicky is only on that street in the makeup after she jumps from the marquee, and Pammy is never down there with her. This photo was taken either before, during a break in, or after filming.

The other photos are UK lobby cards (or suspected lobby cards), except the Yoram Kahana photograph from the session that also produced the shot that became half of the movie poster and soundtrack album cover, and the slide of Aggie Doon debuting Damn Dog, which I think is seeing its first publication here.

And that’s not all! On page 47, we find an ad featuring for the first time the English South Pacific movie poster. The collaged artwork featuring a Mick Rock photo previously appeared in a production promotional ad in Screen International in June of 1980. Here we see the debut of the new tag line, “… is the music of the streets!” which still doesn’t exactly make sense, but is a step up from England’s “Go sleaze!”

But wait, there’s more! As a bonus, on pages 59, our friend Terry O’Brien gives the soundtrack a glowing review.

Soundtrack
TERRY O’BRIEN CHECKS OUT THE MOVIE MUSIC SCENE
TIMES SQUARE
Another double-album from the RSO stable and thus packaged for sure-fire entertainment. “Times Square” is “the music of the streets” and features some of the more familiar names of the New Wave. Suzi Quatro gets the set off with a blast on her “Rock Hard”—a gutsy number which happens to be the favourite of the film’s two young female leads played by Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado. Second up is The Pretenders’ “Talk of the Town” followed by a great Roxy Music number, “Same Old Scene”. The Bowie influence is much in evidence in Gary Numan’s haunting “Down in the Park”, and “Help Me!” has a good commercial sound from Marcy Levy and Robin Gibb. Other standouts are Lou Reed’s classic “Walk on the Wild Side” and a revival of “You Can’t Hurry Love” by D. L. Byron. You’ll also find some good rock from Talking Heads, Joe Jackson, XTC, The Ramones, The Ruts, Desmond Child & Rouge, Garland Jeffreys, The Cure and Patti Smith Group. Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado themselves are also featured on “Your Daughter is One” a nose-thumbing raspberry to society and “Damn Dog”, a solo by Johnson. A good collection.
TIMES SQUARE-RSO Records

This was dated February but was probably on the stands while Times Square was still in theaters. EMI certainly expected it to be so, judging by the advertisement that appeared on page 162.

It’s almost identical to the ad that ran in Record Mirror, probably at the same time.

Page 177 contained a review of the movie by David Quinlan, accompanied by one of the photos Mick Rock doesn’t really remember taking of Robin. Mr. Quinlan’s review is typically fair for the time: it’s a bad movie that nevertheless has something genuinely affecting in it, rooted in “the gutsy performances of the girls themselves,” particularly Trini, bless his heart.

TIMES SQUARE (X). Despite a silly story that never begins to hang together, Times Square gets by on youthful raw energy, another pre-sold LP background score of new wave music, and the inter-relationship between its two young female stars, gravel-voiced Robin Johnson as the backstreets fifteen year-old and especially thirteen year-old Trini Alvarado, who gives a warm and understanding performance as the repressed daughter of an eager-beaver young politician. Committed for hospital observation under very different circumstances, the girls run away together and form a duo against society, calling themselves The Sleez Sisters. With the help of an independent-minded DJ (overplayed by Tim Curry), they become cult figures and, for a brief while, a national news item. If the story sounds as though it makes sense, it doesn’t in the actual relation of events on screen, which are pure fantasy (with treatment to match) and have no basis in real life, apart from the gutsy performances of the girls themselves, which at times make one care more than was probably the script’s intention. The music is a knock-out, and the end may find you groping furtively and reluctantly for a handkerchief. — D.Q. (Prod/Robert Stigwood, Jacob Brackman. Scr/Jacob Brackman. Dir/Alan Moyle. Ph/James A Contner. Technicolor. Ill mins. EMI. US 1980)

On page 178, we find that Mr. Quinlan gave Times Square 3 stars, and his colleague Rosemary Stirling gave it only one. Perhaps we should be glad she didn’t write the review the magazine printed. Perhaps it would have been interesting to see what she might have had to say about it.

This is the fifth appearance Times Square made in the press that I know of. The first was a mention in Radio and Records, the date of which I’m uncertain, but since it describes the movie as coming out in the summer I’m placing it first — possibly even as early as November 1979 when shooting would have started and the big WJAD neon sign hoisted into place on the Candler Building. The second was Screen International No. 231 in March 1980, touting Robin’s unlikely “discovery.” The third was an article about the film’s production in The Aquarian in April 1980 which seems to have been written from interviews conducted in November and December 1979. And the fourth, in May 1980, a quote about the movie from Robert Stigwood in Photoplay.

So in mid-June 1980, which, judging by the Radio and Records article, was the originally planned release date for Times Square, EMI plastered a two-page announcement of the film’s impending release in the center spread of this organ aimed at British film exhibitors and producers. Allan Moyle had long since left the project; the spring months had probably been devoted to reshoots and re-editing. The text of the ad, which features a glorious photo of Robin by Mick Rock, places Times Square as the crowning jewel in Robert Stigwood’s crown. Seven months later it would be obvious to all that this was not the case, and the remaining publicity for Times Square would revert to the March Screen International blurb and center around Robin’s discovery and impending stellar career.

Saturday Night Fever, Grease,
Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy.
The entertainment revolution
that Robert Stigwood began,
continues with
TIMES SQUARE
AN EMI FILMS PRESENTATION
UNITED KINGDOM DISTRIBUTION BY COLUMBIA-EMI-WARNER
NORTH AMERICA BY ASSOCIATED FILM DISTRIBUTION AND
THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD BY EMI FILMS
EMI
A member of the Thorn EMI Group

TIMES SQUARE
© 1980 Butterfly Valley N.V.

If you have the feeling you’ve seen this before, or that I’m just vamping here, you’re right: I only just obtained a copy of this magazine, but in December 2015 I posted a link to the copy previously posted by Karen Dean (DefeatedandGifted) and said pretty much all I had to say about it then. At the time I never thought I’d find any copies of Screen International, but I now have three issues in which Robin appears. I’ve been collecting Robin Johnson items for a very long time, and somehow “new” things keep turning up.

This is the Mick Rock photo of Robin that appeared on the contents page of Film Review, Vol. 30 No. 10, October 1980. At first I thought that it was a collage of that and a photo of Trini, but I tried lightening up the background and it does indeed appear that they’re standing in the same room, on the same floor. Also, if you crop the photo to remove Trini, you lose a bit of Robin’s elbow, and that’s exactly how the Film Review version appears. What I’m getting at is, this is apparently a photograph of Trini Alvarado taken by Mick Rock.

Trini and Robin atop the Times Square Theater marquee. This photo is labelled TS-22-32 in the style of the US publicity photos.

TS-88-29A, another of those rare publicity photos that doesn’t try to depict a scene from the film, although it obviously comes from the day they shot the scene where Johnny gets Pammy kicked out of the “hideout”. There was at least one other shot taken that day of these three smiling for the camera, which was printed in color in an Australian magazine in 1981, and later on the sleeve of the Japanese laserdisc in 1986.

An identical stamp is on the back of this photo I posted about previously, which just happens to have a tiny UK Press Kit-style “34” printed into it. It would seem there was a series of UK photos that numbered at least up to 34, and which were stamped on the back with the movie title. This doesn’t mean, however, that they were all used… there’s probably at least a 2 and a 6 floating around somewhere, to match up with the caption sheet, but there’s no reason to think there was ever a 9, 10, or anything between 11 and 34. I can hope, though… it’s been quiet lately but “new” items still turn up from time to time.

One problem with the stamp, though, is that it also appears on the back of the second copy of Photo #1, the one with the US-style number on it. It seems as though it, and the smaller pasted-in number are good indicators that a given print was made and used in the UK, but I don’t think we can conclude anything else from it.

To finish things off, here are the two versions of the shorter profile of Robin. Again, the version on “Times Square” letterhead appears to have been “translated” into British English, “there’s an ad” into “there was an advert” and so on. I doubt Robin has ever said “advert” in her life. (The text below is the “British” version.)

ROBIN JOHNSON (Nicky Marotta)

Before spending twelve weeks in front of the “Times Square” cameras, the closest Robin Johnson ever came to a film set was when “The Wanderers” shot a scene in her Brooklyn neighbourhood. In fact, 15 year-old Robin had had no previous acting experience when, as a result of a five-month nationwide search, she was discovered by a talent scout outside Brooklyn High School. “He told me there was an advert in the paper for a girl about l6, slenderish, blonde hair and street—tough,” Robin recalls. “So he gave me a number to call. I just did it for a kick. I didn’t expect nothin’ out of it.”

A native of Brooklyn, Robin is blessed with an incredible amount of energy, awareness and photogenic appeal – as well as a very distinctive voice. Her “street toughness” is no surprise, since she describes her own Brooklyn neighbourhood as “not rough rough – like you gotta carry a knife on you. You just got to watch out for yourself.”

1.65m (five-feet five inches) and 52kg (115 pounds), Robin has green eyes and naturally blonde hair which was dyed several shades of red for the role. Like her screen counterpart, she is a devout rock enthusiast whose favourites include Led Zeppelin, The Wh0 and The Rolling Stones.

Before filming ”TIMES SQUARE”, Robin’s ambition was to become a commercial artist, but now she is already a seasoned performer and will be featured singing on the soundtrack album released by RSO Records.

TIMES SQUARE is an EMI Films presentation distributed in the United Kingdom by Columbia-EMI-Warner, in North America by AFD (Associated Film Distribution) and throughout the rest of the world by EMI Films Limited.

Even as Times Square was opening and closing in the United States, the mighty RSO promotion machine was hard at work in the United Kingdom, as this full-page ad for the soundtrack shows. Running on page 21 of the November 15 Melody Maker, it featured a newsprint-style blowup of Mick Rock’s photo of Robin from the back of the album. Although it teased the impending release of the movie, it didn’t give a date for it. (The UK opening would be January 15, 1981; perhaps that date hadn’t been decided on yet. Or, maybe the movie marketing people and the record marketing people weren’t on speaking terms.)