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Apparently, in 1980, RSO sent this videotape to record retailers to play in-store to promote the soundtrack to Times Square. It features the two songs performed in the film, “Your Daughter Is One” and “Damn Dog.” The fact that the lyrics to “Your Daughter Is One” consist primarily of curse words and racial slurs guaranteed that it would never be played in any store for more than thirty seconds. The fact that nobody at RSO, from the tape’s conception to its distribution, realized that would happen, boggles the mind.
 

 

The middle portion of the tape is an edit of the dance the girls do along 42nd Street to “Life During Wartime” by Talking Heads. Much of this sequence is made up of shots that do not actually appear in the film; unfortunately here they’re only four or five frames long. Even more unfortunately, this digitization is at such low resolution that individual frames turn into pretty smears of color.
 

This video was originally digitized and uploaded on February 24 2012 by “PsychoticNorman”. I’ve offered to buy or borrow the tape to make a higher quality transfer, but have not received a reply. I have fixed the aspect ratio and brightened and sharpened the image a little. You can see PsychoticNorman’s original upload here. My file is technically at a higher resolution, but that’s an artifact of my editing software refusing to save at the small resolution of the original file. I’ve tried to make it easier to look at, but there isn’t really any more detail.

 

 

 

TIMES SQUARE soundtrack promotional video (trailer (motion picture) AAT ID: 300263866), videotape promoting the film and soundtrack for use in record stores, 5:29 (work); H264 – MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc 1), 480 px (W) x 386 px (H), 19.4 MB (video); MPEG AAC (mp4a) stereo 48000 Hz (audio)
(video modified 25 December 2015 from the file digitized by PsychoticNorman at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S38UzHtkmeA)

 

RSO Promo Video Image4.png, RSO Promo Video Image5.png, RSO Promo Video Image15.png, RSO Promo Video Image17.png, RSO Promo Video Image21.png, RSO Promo Video Image22.png: frame captures from “TIMES SQUARE soundtrack promotional video”, 655 px (W) x 486 px (H), 72 dpi (images)

 

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The full opened outside of the 2-sided promotional poster. As this was designed to be looked at while being opened and then turned to the other side, the sections comprising the folded outside are upside down. Text: THERE'S NOTHING TO DO BUT PLAY MUSIC AND SCREAM YOUR LUNGS OUT. TIMES SQUARE ROBERT STIGWOOD PRESENTS TIMES SQUARE STARRING TIM CURRY TRINI ALVARADO ROBIN JOHNSON PETER COFFIELD HERBERT BERGHOF SCREENPLAY BY JACOB BRACKMAN STORY BY ALAN MOYLE AND LEANNE UNGER DIRECTED BY ALAN MOYLE PRODUCED BY ROBERT STIGWOOD AND JACOB BRACKMAN EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS KEVIN McCORMICK AND JOHN NICOLELLA ASSOCIATE PRODUCER BILL OAKES R RESTRICTED UNDER 17 REQUIRES ACCOMPANYING PARENT OR ADULT GUARDIAN SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON RSO RECORDS AND TAPES AN EMI RELEASE DISTRIBUTED BY AFD EMI RSO® Records Inc. AFD ©1980 Associated Film Distribution DESIGN: SEININGER & ASSOCIATES PRINTED IN U.S.A. THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY AND THAT'S RUNNING AWAY AND HANGING OUT AND SETTING YOURSELF FREE. TIMES SQUARE THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK FROM THE MOTION PICTURE 2 RECORD SET FEATURING MUSIC BY "ROCK HARD" - SUZI QUATRO "TALK OF THE TOWN" - THE PRETENDERS "SAME OLD SCENE" - ROXY MUSIC "DOWN IN THE PARK" - GARY NUMAN "HELP ME!" - MARCY LEVY & ROBIN GIBB "LIFE DURING WARTIME" - TALKING HEADS "PRETTY BOYS" - JOE JACKSON "TAKE THIS TOWN" - XTC "I WANNA BE SEDATED" - THE RAMONES "DAMN DOG" - ROBIN JOHNSON "YOUR DAUGHTER IS ONE" - ROBIN JOHNSON & TRINI ALVARADO "BABYLON'S BURNING" - THE RUTS "YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE" - D.L. BYRON "WALK ON THE WILD SIDE" - LOU REED "THE NIGHT WAS NOT" - DESMOND CHILD & ROUGE "INNOCENT, NOT GUILTY" - GARLAND JEFFREYS "GRINDING HALT" - THE CURE "PISSING IN THE RIVER" - PATTI SMITH GROUP "FLOWERS IN THE CITY" - DAVID JOHANSEN & ROBIN JOHNSON

The Mystery of the Double-Sided Poster, Side One

I think this was the first promotional piece I found after Times Square had come, been, and gone. (Not this copy, but I'll get to that.) I don't recall exactly where it came from... it was a tiny store dealing in rock memorabilia in Manhattan somewhere, probably between 34th and…

Black and white 8x10 transparency containing the poster side of the 2-sided poster foldout promoting TIMES SQUARE (1980) to movie theater bookers. The image measures approximately 9 7/16" x 6 5/16".

Promotional print ad transparency

One problem with collecting this stuff so haphazardly over so many years is that almost none of it has any kind of provenance. I get something from someone who collects all sorts of film memorabilia in order to resell it to the one person who might want a particular item...…

Seventeen Magazine, Vol. 39 No. 10, October 1980

            Again presuming that any magazine dated October probably came out in September before the movie opened, here's an interview with Robin that appeared as two pages of Edwin Miller's "Spotlight: Movies, records, personalities" column.     The full column led off on page 93…