Trini Alvarado – Robin Johnson

Mick Rock

Sean — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 01:11:42 +0000

On June 1, 2016, Mick Rock did a signing for the “unlimited” edition of his book, The Rise of David Bowie, at Taschen in New York City, and I went.

Of course I got an autographed book, but I also took the opportunity to ask him about the photos of Robin I’ve been theorizing he took at the same time as the back cover of the soundtrack album.

I showed him a page with the four photos printed on it, and there ensued a conversation that went more or less like this:

Q: Could I ask you a quick question?

A: Yeah. I don’t know that I can answer it…

Q: I know you took the first photo here. Did you take the other three as well? I know this is yours.

A: How do you know that? But it is mine.

Q: Because on the back of the album, it says, “Photo by Mick Rock.”

A: Oh, yeah, yeah, not many people now even know about the film Times Square.

Q: I’m the one.

A: No, I did take that one. Very good, I haven’t had it come up in years.

Q: Did you take these others?

A: No…

Q: Because these are the only ones where she’s got that guitar. And it is —

A: I could have… no, I shot them both together. That was a long time ago… They paid me a lot of money…

ASSISTANT: Just take the credit!

SECOND ASSISTANT: Take the credit for it!

ASSISTANT: Yes.

A: [laughs] Anyway.

ASSISTANT: “Is it rubbish? It’s good? It’s mine!”

A: [laughs]

Q: Thank you very much.

So I guess we still don’t have a definitive answer, and won’t unless someone else manages to get one from him, or he finds and releases the originals from his archive. But he certainly seemed to be leaning in that direction, and so I feel more certain than ever that these shots, and any more that might possibly turn up, of Robin in her “Aggie Doon’s debut” outfit, and with that Kent guitar, and any shots that may surface of Trini in the poncho she wears during the final sequence that aren’t obviously shot during filming, were all shot by Mick Rock in a session that yielded the back cover of the soundtrack album, and for which he was paid a lot of money.

Your humble narrator with the man himself. If he had taken the photo, I might have looked cool too.

Would you like to know more?

From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack TIMES SQUARE (songbook)
Times Square UK Press Kit (post 4 of 4)
Nicky Marotta in Limbo
Filmstar, Vol 1 No. 3, Thailand, August 1981

From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack TIMES SQUARE [detail, back cover]
0049_01_detail_800px-1.jpg
564px (W) × 800px (H), 96dpi, 239 kb (image)
Photo by Mick Rock
©1980 Chappell & Co.

[TIMES SQUARE UK Press Kit photo a]
TIMES-SQUARE-UK-Press-Kit-photo_a_1080px.jpg
1080 px (H) x 864 px (W), 96 dpi, 154 kb (image)

[Nicky with Her Kent]
8 in (H) x 10 in (W) (work);
862 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 338 kb (image)
1979/1980
inscription: [on reverse:] [handwritten in blue ink:] D+P. EAST 170 mm deep x 115 mm wide PA77
[handwritten in black ink:] ROBIN JOHNSON. 20
[stamped in black:] DEREK AND PAT EAST COLLECTION

Filmstar Vol. 1 No. 3, 15 August 1981, back cover (magazine (periodical), AAT ID: 300215389)
25.9 x 18.9 cm. (work);
Filmstar Vol 1 No 3_back_cover_1080px.jpg
1080 px (H) x 777 px (W), 96 dpi, 679 kb
(image)

[THE RISE OF DAVID BOWIE, front cover], [Mick Rock’s autograph], photographed by Sean Rockoff, July 26, 2020

[Me and Mick Rock], photographed by one of Mick Rock’s assistants, possibly an employee at Taschen Store New York… now permanently closed… thank you for your service…

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

Sean — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 17:59:24 +0000

The final cards from the first set of UK lobby cards. These are the last of the items I have that were released contemporaneously with Times Square’s original release, so I’m going to take a bit of a break after this before continuing with the rest of Robin’s brief acting career. It seems right anyway, doesn’t it? After all, she took an (unwilling) three year break after Times Square. I should be back well before that.

Card #13, the WJAD staff dragging Nicky away from the mic, was used in the second set of UK lobby cards, on an Italian lobby poster, and on a Yugoslavian lobby card poster.

Pammy watching Nicky sing “Damn Dog” atop the Times Square Theatre marquee was similarly used in the second UK set of cards and on a Yugoslavian lobby card poster. It didn’t make to Italy though, apparently.

The crowd of Sleez Kidz blocking 42nd Street, looking at Nicky and Pammy, as Simon and JoJo watch from the marquee of the Apollo Theater with half a Blondell visible next to them, was later used on a German lobby card, with a wider crop revealing all of Billy Mernit.

And the final card made its only other appearance, as far as I know, on the Mexican poster for Guerreras de Nueva York.

Would you like to know more?

U.K. Lobby Cards (post 3 of 3)
Times Square Lobby Poster, Italy
Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 1 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981
Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 3 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981
Times Square lobby cards, Germany, 1982 (post 5 of 5)
Guerreras de Nueva York (Times Square movie poster, Mexico, 1981)

[TIMES SQUARE UK lobby cards, set 1, 13-16 of 16]
UK : lobby cards : AAT ID: 300208593 : 28 x 36 cm. : 1981 (works);
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_13_1080px.jpg
837 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 499 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_14_1080px.jpg
841 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 447 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_15_1080px.jpg
841 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 507 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_16_1080px.jpg
839 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 546 kb (images)

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)

Times Square UK Lobby Cards, 1st Set (post 2 of 4)

Sean — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:33:30 +0000

Cards 5 through 8 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:

Nicky joining in as Pammy dances and Roberto (Miguel Pinero) looks on bemusedly, was in the other set of UK lobby cards, on the third Yugoslavian lobby card poster, a German lobby card, and on the back of a Japanese promotional flyer.

Aggie Doon at the mic with Artie Weinstein obscured behind her on drums was on the second Yugoslavian lobby card poster, and printed with Artie cropped out in Joepie No. 365.

The wider shot of that scene was used on the third Yugoslavian lobby card poster, and is most notable as far as I’m concerned for being nearly, but not, identical to this color 8×10 that as far as I know was first seen by the public on this very website.

Pammy and Nicky having a giggle performing “Your Daughter Is One” was repeated in the second set of UK lobby cards, and was used on the Yugoslavian lobby poster. The “Rickenbacker” nameplate on Nicky’s guitar was removed before the take used in the film.

Would you like to know more?

U.K. Lobby Cards (post 2 of 3)
Tajms Skver – lobby poster, Yugoslavia, 1981
Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 2 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981
Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 3 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981
Times Square lobby cards, Germany, 1982 (post 3 of 5)
Times Square promotional flyer, Japan, 1981
Joepie, No. 365, March 15, 1981
“Damn Dog”
Times Square Press Material folder (post 4 of 5)

[TIMES SQUARE UK lobby cards, set 1, 5-8 of 16]
UK : lobby cards : AAT ID: 300208593 : 28 x 36 cm. : 1981 (works);
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_05_1080px.jpg
848 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 484 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_06_1080px.jpg
841 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 394 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_07_1080px.jpg
842 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 550 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_08_1080px.jpg
835 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 527 kb (images)

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

Sean — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 17:39:02 +0000

I first encountered lobby cards from this series several years ago in the collection of DefeatedandGifted, and I assumed they were Australian, partly because that’s where she was, and because they used the American form of the logo which was used on the Australian movie poster while listing EMI as the distributor. The movie posters also, however, have a logo for another distributor, either GD or GL Film Distributors, which is absent from the lobby cards.

Well, what should turn up as part of a massive sale of British lobby cards, but an apparently complete set of them. And although I suppose they could still really be Australian, the seller assured me that they were indeed from the UK. So, since other than the distributor being EMI, these cards replicate the design of the American publicity materials, and since there’s also a set of UK lobby cards that does use the logo used on the rest of the UK publicity materials, I conclude that these are a first set of cards made for the British market before the British publicity designs had been finalized. Maybe they’d originally been created for the USA, and then repurposed when someone realized that lobby cards weren’t really a thing in America anymore.

So, the UK had two separate set of Times Square lobby cards. Or, these really are Australian. Either way, this series of cards was definitely the source for the posters printed in Yugoslavia some months later.

They’re not numbered, of course; I’m presenting them in more or less the order they would have appeared in the movie.

The first, Tim Curry as Johnny at the mic, was published in Movie 81 No 2, February 1981, and appeared in the other set of UK lobby cards, on a German lobby card, and on one of the Yugoslavian lobby card posters.

Kathy Lojac as Nurse Joan introducing Nicky and Pammy made its debut here, and appeared with Pammy mostly cropped out on a Yugoslavian lobby card poster.

Nicky and Pammy walking along 42nd Street is from the deleted scene of the girls looking for and finding Nicky’s dad. There were plenty of stills shot during the filming of this but the entire sequence, along with the scene of them dyeing each other’s hair by the banks of the Hudson River, was cut and replaced with the brief moment of them on the subway. (The part where they find Nicky’s dad may not even have been filmed — there’s only photographic evidence of their walk to Times Square.) This photo appeared in the “Robert Stigwood Presents Times Square” folder, and in the other set of UK lobby cards, and as one of the German lobby cards.

Nicky cutting Pammy’s wrist for the blood sisters ritual was reprinted from here on the same Yugoslavian lobby card poster as the hospital photo, they only other place either of them appeared. The moment before this, Nicky cutting her own wrist, was shot from a different angle that showed the boom microphone and printed, mic and all, in the center spread of the Japanese souvenir program book. In the film, we don’t actually see the knife touch Pammy’s wrist, and we see Nicky’s wrist cut only in close-up.

Would you like to know more?
Movie 81 No. 2, February 1981
Times Square lobby cards, Germany, 1982 (post 2 of 5)
Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 3 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981
Times Square Press Folder
On Location
42nd & 6th
Times Square UK Press Kit (post 2 of 4)
Times Square Program Book, Japan, June 1981, pages 12-13 (post 5 of 5)

[TIMES SQUARE UK lobby cards, set 1, 1-4 of 16]
UK : lobby cards : AAT ID: 300208593 : 28 x 36 cm. : 1981 (works);
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_01_1080px.jpg
847 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 427 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_02_1080px.jpg
848 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 476 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_03_1080px.jpg
847 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 504 kb
Times_Square_UK_lobby_card_series_1_04_1080p.jpg
848 x 1080 px, 96 dpi, 432 kb (images)

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

Sean — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 17:10:51 +0000

The last of the Yugoslavian lobby card posters features four images we’ve seen before: Johnny at the mic, Roberto watching Nicky watching Pammy dance, Pammy watching Nicky sing, and Aggie Doone’s debut, which hasn’t appeared on this site, but if you follow the links you’ve seen it at Karen Dean’s (DefeatedandGifted’s) page.

And that is the solution to the mystery of where exactly the images on the Yugoslavian posters came from, as they’ve been obviously cut and pasted together with the ZF logo pasted into them. We’ll see it in more detail in the next few posts. Meanwhile, here are the individual images from the poster, separated as if they were actual lobby cards, which they were not.

Would you like to know more?
Times Square lobby cards, Germany, 1982 (post 2 of 5)
U.K. Lobby Cards (post 2 of 3)
U.K. Lobby Cards (post 3 of 3)

[Tajms Skver – Times Square lobby card poster, 3 of 3]
poster, AAT ID: 300027221
Yugoslavia ; 46.6 x 34.5 cm. (work)
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_sheet_Yugoslavia_1981_3_of_3_1080px.jpg
765 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 410 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_9_of_12_1080px.jpg
771 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 423 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_10_of_12_1080px.jpg
769 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 433 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_11_of_12_1080px.jpg
771 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 438 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_12_of_12_1080px.jpg
769 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 484 kb (images)

Tajms Skver – lobby card poster 2 of 3, Yugoslavia, 1981

Sean — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 17:52:04 +0000

Another four “lobby cards”, printed together on one poster, having been cut together and reprinted from an earlier series of lobby cards that I didn’t have when I found these. Unlike the first one, I think we’ve seen all these images previously, but, I’ll have more to say about them later. That will make sense then, I promise. Or, I hope.

Here are the individual “cards”, from when I separated them before realizing that they were never intended to be separated.

[Tajms Skver – Times Square lobby card poster, 2 of 3]
poster, AAT ID: 300027221
Yugoslavia ; 46.6 x 34.5 cm. (work)
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_sheet_Yugoslavia_1981_2_of_3_1080px.jpg
768 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 472 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_5_of_12_1080px.jpg
769 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 477 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_6_of_12_1080px.jpg
761 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 510 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_7_of_12_1080px.jpg
789 px (H) x 765 px (W), 96 dpi, 467 kb
TAJMS_SKVER_lobby_card_Yugoslavia_1981_8_of_12_1080px.jpg
776 px (H) x 1080 px (W), 96 dpi, 493 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)

Tajms Skver – lobby poster, Yugoslavia, 1981

Sean — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 17:22:53 +0000

The main Yugoslavian poster used the art from the U.K. poster which was used throughout Europe. But Zeta Film also produced at least four more promotional pieces, which I believe to have been made for display in theater lobbies, based on their size and artwork.

This poster is smaller than a standard one-sheet, and reproduces photos previously used as U.K. lobby cards, top and bottom, although the reproduction leaves much to be desired.

I think it’s astounding that this much effort was put into promoting Times Square in Yugoslavia. I wonder if the film itself had been dubbed in Serbian or Bosnian.

AMERIČKI FILM
TAJMS SKVER
TIMES SQUARE
REŽIJA: ALAN MOYLE ULOGE: TIM CURRY TRINI ALVARADO ROBIN JOHNSON
ZETA FILM
ZF
BUDVA

AMERICAN FILM
TAJMS SKVER
TIMES SQUARE
DIRECTION: ALAN MOYLE STARRING: TIM CURRY TRINI ALVARADO ROBIN JOHNSON
ZETA FILM
ZF
BUDVA

Would you like to know more?
Tajms Skver – Times Square Movie Poster, Yugoslavia, 1981
Times Square U.K. Movie Poster
U.K. Lobby Cards (post 2 of 3)
U.K. Lobby Cards (post 1 of 3)

Tajms Skver – Times Square lobby poster
poster, AAT ID: 300027221
Yugoslavia ; 46.6 x 34.5 cm. (work)
TAJMS_SKVER_Yugoslavia_movie_poster_1981_1080p.jpg
1080 px (H) x 765 px (W), 96 dpi, 415 kb (image)

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+