Peter Coffield – Robin Johnson

UK Publicity Still #24

Sean — Sat, 11 May 2024 20:21:15 +0000

“You’re a big man, hit me again!”

I’m starting to think that there are two separate sets of UK black-and-white publicity stills, one with borders, one without. You know, just to make things more confusing. Thankfully, so far at least there isn’t another one labeled “24” but not full-bleed.

On the Times Square commentary track recorded around 1999-2000, Robin says:

“Peter had so much trouble with this… It was hard for him to be rough and violent with me, actually. I remember him having some trouble with that… He’s such a doll… I didn’t want to do that fake, camera-angle stuff so I let him really smack me around. [laughs] It’s my S&M streak. ‘Smack me!'”

Although it’s hard to tell if he’s really hitting her in the film – for instance she’s definitely turning her head several frames before his hand starts traveling – as far as I can tell this still is unique in that it’s actually from the shot used in the film, just from a different, closer angle. I’d assume from that that there was no run-through or rehearsal, or even a second take, in order to reduce the wear and tear on both actors.

It’s impossible to tell from the film angle, but this photo definitely makes it look like a solid face-smashing slap that took something out of both performers. It seems something of a shame that it was never used for anything, as far as I know, and perhaps hasn’t been seen by anybody until now.

Times Square UK Lobby Cards, 1st Set (post 3 of 4)

Sean — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 17:54:28 +0000

Cards 9 through 12 from what I believe to be the first of two sets of Times Square lobby cards distributed in the UK in late 1980 or early 1981:

David Pearl watching his daughter practice dance moves at the strip club was reproduced on the first Yugoslavian lobby card poster.

The girls dropping their first television was on the second Yugoslavian lobby card poster, and had previously been published in Film Review, Vol 31 No 1, January 1981, Movie 81, No 2, February 1981, and on the back of the Japanese promo flyer, and was also in the other set of UK lobby cards, and made its final appearance as a German lobby card.

Nicky with her guitar in the hideout was later used on the sole Mexican lobby card to come to light.

And Pammy and Johnny witnessing Nicky’s meltdown (off-camera) was later on the second Yugolavian lobby card poster, a on a German lobby card, and, reversed, in the Japanese souvenir program book.

Would you like to know more?

Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 1 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981
Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 2 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981
Film Review, Vol. 31 No. 1, January 1981
Movie 81 No. 2, February 1981
Times Square movie poster, Japan, June 1981
U.K. Lobby Cards (post 2 of 3)
Times Square lobby cards, Germany, 1982 (post 4 of 5)
Guerreras de Nueva York (Times Square lobby card, Mexico, 1981)
Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981, pages 14-19 (post 3 of 5)

[TIMES SQUARE UK lobby cards, set 1, 9-12 of 16]
UK : lobby cards : AAT ID: 300208593 : 28 x 36 cm. : 1981 (works);
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_09_1080px.jpg
840 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 506 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_10_1080px.jpg
839 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 446 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_11_1080px.jpg
842 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 461 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_12_1080px.jpg
842 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 474 kb (images)

Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 1 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981

Sean — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 17:20:51 +0000

I originally thought that these were uncut sheets of lobby cards intended to be separated into individual items, but after digitally doing exactly that I’ve come to the conclusion that, no, they were intended to be displayed just as they are. First, there’s not enough interior border area to cut them apart evenly, unless you trim them all the way down to the image on all four sides. Second, these sheets are exactly the same size and printed on the same poster paper as the Yugoslavian lobby poster (which itself is made up of two lobby card images), although made to be shown in landscape orientation rather than portrait. And third, shortly after I acquired these I saw a second set of them, also in poster form, so I’m guessing that these Yugoslavian lobby cards were never cut apart.

This is the first time many of these particular images have been published here, but they’re not making their first appearances as Times Square publicity items. It may not be visible in the digitized images but a close examination of the posters shows quite clearly that they’ve been cut together from another set of lobby cards, with the Tajms Skver insets pasted in on top. This is why the overall printing job leaves something to be desired — these are essentially color photocopies of items originally distributed months before… but which so far are the very last Times Square publicity materials I’ve found. I’ll start posting those in a month or two, meanwhile here are the individual images from this lobby card poster, that I’d made before I realized they weren’t meant to be displayed individually.

[Tajms Skver – Times Square lobby card poster, 1 of 3]
poster, AAT ID: 300027221
Yugoslavia ; 46.6 x 34.5 cm. (work)
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_sheet_Yugoslavia_1981_1_of_3_1080px.jpg
777 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 425 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_1_of_12_1080px.jpg
758 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 453 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_2_of_12_1080px.jpg
774 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 510 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_3_of_12_1080px.jpg
767 px (H) x 765 px (W), 96 dpi, 460 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_4_of_12_1080px.jpg
773 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 404 kb (images)

Times Square German press photos, 1982

Sean — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 17:20:54 +0000

Schröder-Filmverleih, Times Square’s German distributor, put out a handful of black-and-white press photos to promote the movie along with the poster and lobby card set. They aren’t printed all that well, appearing to be copies of copies, which is a shame because most of them are images that never appeared anywhere else.

The first one here is Pammy and Nicky bursting through the doors that somehow lead to an alley accessible by fire escape from the Adonis Theater. It must have been taken at about the same time as this color shot, and like that shot, doesn’t match up to the action in the film. To my eye, the girls are in the same spot relative to the doorway in both photos, so I hypothesize that this was taken during a second run-through, as they tried to internalize the direction to look more frightened and less happy. In the take used for the movie, Robin practically falls through the doorway, and Trini is not smiling. (More details of the peculiar architecture of 50th St. & 8th Ave.)

This second one, Mr. Pearl attacking Johnny, would appear to have been taken just before or just after TS-78-2/16 from the American Press Material folder. Why did Germany use this ever-so-slightly different photo? Your guess is as good as mine.

These black and white 8 x 10’s came complete with ready-to-use captions in German on the back.

Two teenagers Nicky (ROBIN JOHNSON, right) and Pamela (TRINI ALVARADO) are on the run in “Times Square – you can all kiss our asses”. The two girls become true heroes for their peers. An amazing film with the hits of recent years and the great Tim Curry as cunning disc jockey Johnny LaGuardia.

Ambitious politician David Pearl (PETER COFFIELD) storms furiously at disc jockey Johnny LaGuardia (TIM CURRY). Pearl thinks the disc jockey knows where his runaway daughter is. A highlight of the movie “Times Square – you can all screw off”. The craziest film ever made about New York teenagers.

Someone has corrected by hand the printed misspelling of Johnny’s last name as “LaGuardian.”

[two German press photos]
black-and-white photographs, AAT ID: 300128347
Germany, 1982 ; 12.3 x 17.4 cm. (works)

Times_Square_Press_Photo_1982_Germany_Pammy_Nicky_1080px.jpg
1080 px (W) x 762 px (H), 96 dpi, 295 kb
Times_Square_Press_Photo_1982_Germany_Pearl_Johnny_1080px.jpg
1080 px (W) x 769 px (H), 96 dpi, 326 kb
Times_Square_Press_Photo_1982_Germany_Pammy_Nicky_back_1080px.jpg
1179 px (W) x 762 px (H), 96 dpi, 235 kb
Times_Square_Press_Photo_1982_Germany_Pearl_Johnny_back_1080px.jpg
1198 px (W) x 769 px (H), 96 dpi, 181 kb (images)

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

15 or 16 UK Promo Photos

Sean — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:17:41 +0000

As promised, here are all I have so far from the series of 8×10 black and white publicity stills from the UK, whose only true common denominator is that they have a small one- or two-digit number on a tiny inset square as part of the print. The typical still from the US has a handwritten string of letters and numbers. Some of these have captions pasted to their backs, some have “TIMES SQUARE” stamped on their backs, the ones that came with the UK Press Kit matched up with numbers on an enclosed caption sheet, although I don’t think my copy of that Press Kit was complete.

I’m not sure if I have fifteen or sixteen of these because there are two #4s. The highest number I have is 36, implying that there are twenty or twenty-one more out there somewhere.

In preparing this post, I noticed something. I have two copies of number 20, and they’re not identical.

The second copy is darker and cropped differently. I thought perhaps it was something I might have done when digitizing them, but the number is in a different place. It’s possible I made one look a little darker than the other, but I’m sure I didn’t crop away that much of the first one, and, well, the number is part of the print. It seems there may have been multiple printings of these stills. Perhaps the #4 of Pammy and her father is a reprint of a photo that’s supposed to have a different number, and whoever stuck the number on and printed it made a mistake.

The photos above previously appeared in these posts, except for the second copy of #20:

Times Square UK Press Kit (post 2 of 4)
Times Square UK Press Kit (post 3 of 4)
“6”
UK Promo Photos 4, 13, and 21, 1980-81
UK Promo Photos 20 and 26, 1980-81
UK Promo Photo #29
“34”
Nicky Marotta, 1980

Times Square publicity stills 1, 3, 4, 4 [2nd version], 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 20, 20 [2nd version], 21, 26, 29, 34, 36
black-and-white photographs, AAT ID: 300128347
UK ; 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (works)

Times Square ©1980 StudioCanal/Canal+

UK Promo Photos 4, 13, and 21, 1980-81

Sean — Fri, 25 May 2018 16:57:59 +0000

Typically, shortly before my last post was published (but weeks after I’d initially written it), five more stills from the UK series turned up. Two were duplicates of numbers 20 and 29, but the others were new to me. They follow the series’ general conventions of being black and white 8×10″s with no border, a handwritten number on a tiny square inset along the bottom edge, and a paper strip taped to the back with a typed caption.

This first one I’d been passing up for maybe nearly a year, since Robin isn’t in it and it’s essentially a duplicate of TS-117-13/15, although less cropped, but I picked it up along with these others when I realized it was might be part of this series.

I have some doubts over whether it truly belongs in this series, though, first because the caption sheet taped to the back seems to belong to a different photo, and doesn’t have the photo number on it:

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”.
“TIMES SQUARE” a contemporary drama with music starring Tim Curry, Robin Johnson and Trini Alverado, is a Robert Stigwood Presentation, produced by Stigwood and Jacob Brackman and directed by Alan Moyle from Brackman’s screenplay, based on the story by Moyle and Leanne Unger, with Kevin McCormick and John Nicollela the executive producers and Bill Oakes the associate producer. “TIMES SQUARE” is distributed by Columbia-EMI-Warner.

Robin’s not in the photo, Trini’s name is spelled wrong, and the film distributors’ names are separated by dashes instead of slashes. In fact, the caption is identical to the one on the caption sheet attached to this photo of Robin from the US Press Material folder, except for the typos and the addition of the UK film distributors. The strangest thing is, though, I already have a photo #4 from this series, and it’s of Tim Curry. Both these photos are unmistakably labeled “4”. I’m keeping them both until I find out if one or the other doesn’t belong. I suspect this is the one that should be categorized somewhere else.

The other two are definitely part of this series:

#13 appeared in Photoplay Vol 32 No 1, January 1981, and in the Japanese souvenir program book. A copy of this photo is probably the source of those images.

#29 looks to have been taken within seconds of a shot that appeared cropped in the center of Japanese program book and on a lobby card I don’t have (but Karen Dean [DefeatedandGifted] does), and this color shot. Like that last one, this photo as far as I know was never published and may be making its first public appearance here. It’s probably safe to say that any shot of the performance of “Damn Dog” in the Cleo Club, like the 35mm slide, was taken at the same run-through as this one. None of these shots are of the performance given for the take in the film, even allowing for a different placement of the still and movie cameras.

I promised in the last post, which went up twelve days before this one but was written two months before, that I’d post a collection of all the photos I have from this series once I had fifteen of them, and I now have sixteen, counting both number 4s. So, that will be the next post.

Previous posts referenced above:

Times Square Press Material folder (post 3 of 5)
Times Square Press Material folder (post 4 of 5)
Times Square UK Press Kit (post 2 of 4)
Photoplay Vol 32 No 1, January 1981
Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981 (post 1 of 5)
Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981, pages 12-13 (post 5 of 5)
“Damn Dog”
Aggie Doon

Times Square publicity still 4 [2nd version]
black-and-white photograph, AAT ID: 300128347
UK ; 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (work)

Times_Square_UK_publicity_still_4_auto_1080px.jpg
864 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 368 kb (image)
Times Square publicity still 13
black-and-white photograph, AAT ID: 300128347
UK ; 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (work)

Times_Square_UK_publicity_still_13_manual_1080px.jpg
864 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 423 kb (image)
Times Square publicity still 21
black-and-white photograph, AAT ID: 300128347
UK ; 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (work)

Times_Square_UK_publicity_still_21_auto_1080px.jpg
866 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 432 kb (image)

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+