Robin Johnson

I’d given up all hope of ever finding one of these when, bam, two of them turn up. It’s the EMI version of the pressbook issued in the USA by AFD. It’s shorter in page count, but larger in size, and printed in color on heavier, glossier paper.

It doesn’t include all the articles suggesting inventive ways to promote the movie at your theater, but does include the articles describing the cast and filmmakers. In fact, it includes more about the producers than the AFD pressbook did (which was nothing at all). Most of the text is directly from the US press kit.

The UK press kit didn’t include a synopsis of the movie, but there was a sheet distributed with the credits and a synopsis that was different from the one in the US press kit and pressbook. That sheet is essentially reproduced on pages 2 and 3 here, with translations of the synopsis into French and Spanish. This synopsis includes the scene of Nicky attacking “roadies” from the disco with her switchblade, which appeared in the May 1979 draft of the screenplay, but was never filmed as the scene and Nicky’s character had changed in the meantime.

On pages 4 and 5, the capsule bios of Robin, Trini, Tim Curry, Allan Moyle, Jacob Brackman, John Nicollela, and Bill Oakes, and the half-page on Robert Stigwood, all come word-for-word from the US press kit. The equivalent bios in the UK press kit are worded differently. None of the text so far, other than the film and music credits, appeared in the US pressbook.

The shot of Tim Curry on page 4 is cropped from TS-66-28/8 which was distributed in the US press kit and appeared on page 4 of the US pressbook. The shot of Robin as Nicky is not from the film, but was taken at the time of shooting, and as far as I know never appeared anywhere else. The shot of Trini as Pammy dancing in the Cleo Club looks damned familiar, but I only seem to have this unpublished shot that was taken seconds before or after. There are at least two other shots from this moment but neither are this one. I may have finally accumulated so much Times Square stuff that I just can’t keep track of it all despite my best efforts.

If there’s any huge outcry to read the text, I’ll edit this post to add it.