Robin Johnson

More recently-turned-up Times Square publicity from England. Exactly how these fit in with the rest of it, I’m not sure. I’m guessing they were relatively early UK publicity, since the photos still have the American numbers on them. Perhaps before their own publicity machine got going, EMI contracted with Alan Band to send out photos of the stars. So, maybe there’s a Tim Curry Bandphoto out there somewhere as well.

The photo of Robin is her out-of-costume headshot, the only one she or any of the cast got. We’ve previously seen the American version and another UK version distributed by ITC, one of the movie’s co-producing companies. Looking at them now, the US version has been shrunk to fit with the AFD caption at the bottom, while the ITC version looks like its caption stripe has been placed over top of this Bandphoto version. The Bandphoto caption has been severely edited from the one accompanying the other two, which read “Robin Johnson makes her motion picture acting and singing debut after being discovered by chance at her high school in Brooklyn for the co-starring role with Tim Curry and Trini Alvarado in ‘Times Square.'”

The photo of Trini in costume as Pammy is the one used on the US movie poster and the soundtrack album cover. It was included in the US Press Material folder and appeared in the AFD Campaign Pressbook. The Bandphoto caption, judging by the initials, was edited by Alan Band himself to be far more breathlessly exciting than the US caption had been (“Trini Alvarado, who made an impressive screen debut in Robert Altman’s “Rich Kids,” now is co-starred with Robin Johnson and portrays Pamela Pearl, troubled daughter of an ambitious politician, who becomes a runaway and a rebel against authority in “Times Square.”)

The blue Bandphoto stamps read:

MUST
RETURN

CREDIT
BANDPHOTO
ALAN BAND ASSOCIATES
25 LONGDOWN ROAD
FARNHAM, SURREY, ENGLAND

I’m surprised that this particular photo of Trini — this specific print — is maybe the only item I’ve found that’s showing any age-related image problems (the discoloration along her left cheek). Considering their age, all the Times Square items I’ve come across have held up remarkably well.

The previous posts mentioned above:

Robin Johnson’s Times Square Headshot, “TS-Spec.3”
Headshot, ITC version
Times Square Press Material folder (post 2 of 5)
AFD Campaign Pressbook (pages 1-4)