Times Square (film)/Fun Facts

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Times Square (film)

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  • The film was inspired by a diary director Allan Moyle found in a second hand couch that he bought. The diary was from a young mentally disturbed woman that featured words and drawings about her life on the streets.
  • The title of the original script by Allan Moyle and Leanne Unger was "She Got the Shakes".
  • For a long time the soundtrack album of this film was the only available recording of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated".
  • Director Allan Moyle was fired before production was finished. According to Moyle, this was because he refused to re-shoot the film to add more songs, as the producers wanted a double (vinyl) soundtrack album. Scenes such as the teen girls getting ready to go to the concert were filmed by the second unit.
  • Producer Robert Stigwood insisted on including a Bee Gees song on the soundtrack because he was also the producer of Saturday Night Fever (1977).
  • Producers held open auditions in several cities to cast the film.
  • The film is considered a precursor to director 'Allan Moyle's later movie Pump Up the Volume (1990) which also features a radio disc jockey.
  • Despite playing a supporting role, Tim Curry received top billing as he was the only cast member largely known to film audiences. Curry filmed all his scenes over just two days.
  • For the finale concert atop the theater marquees, the actors were harnessed with frequently-visible safety cables, which Robin Johnson complained about being saddled with, feeling there was no way she would've fallen off the edge.
  • An out-of-business radio station was used as the location both for radio station WJAB and Pearl political headquarters.
  • One of the dancers cheering on Robin Johnson in her first musical scene was actually porn star Sharon Mitchell.
  • As promotion for the film, RSO Records sent out a videotape to record stores featuring the musical segments "Your Daughter is One," "Damn Dog," and a trailer (featuring unused footage) scored with "Life During Wartime" by The Talking Heads.
  • Susan Olsen auditioned for the film.
  • Actor Tim Curry was cast in the top-billed lead role in this soundtrack youth movie after having appeared in a breakthrough film role in the rock musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
  • The name of the girl's double-act was "The Sleaze Sisters".
  • According to the Thorn-EMI Australian video release sleeve notes by Marjorie Bilbow, the film was "Made on location in the tough areas of New York, in streets lined with porno cinemas, sex shops and shady clubs".
  • Despite there being two central female characters, only one of them is depicted, and alone, on the film's main movie poster.
  • The name of the Johnny LaGuardia (Tim Curry)'s radio station was WJAD.
  • The film's "Times Square" title refers to the real-life New York location, which, according to Wikipedia, "is a major commercial intersection and a neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the junction of Broadway (now converted into a pedestrian plaza) and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets".
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