Episode 36 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Movie

A splendid time is guaranteed for all as we dive into the 1978 musical film "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" starring Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees, and George Burns!

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
It's the Dearly Departed Podcast featuring yourhost, historian Scott Michaels and filmmaker Mike
Dorsey. This is the Dearly Partof podcast and I'm Mike Dorsey and I'm
Scott Michaels, and welcome and we'revery happy to be back and welcome to

(00:27):
you back. Also, we're gonnado We'll get to it in a second,
but our show today is going tobe on Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
band the movie. And Scott's holdinghis pin up to the camera if you're
watching the video version, and he'sgot the album in his back behind him
and a poster. Of course,are you a fan? You like this
movie? You know what I wasdoing forty three years ago the other day.

(00:51):
This is my nineteen eighty calendar andthese are my ticket stubs from the
movie. I saw Sergeant Pepper,Sergeant Pepper, Sergeant Pepper, Sergeant Pepper,
Sergeant Pepper. I was nuts aboutthis. So you you've seen it
enough times you can explain the plotto me. Plot Okay, well,

(01:17):
I mean basically, it's these hometownboys Hartland, USA, who played by
the Bgs and Peter Frampton. Theyplay the Henderson Brothers taken from Mister Kite
the Benefit of Mister Kite and BillyShears and is played by the guy who
played cousin Kevin and Paul Nicholas PaulNicholas. So it's BIG's Paul Nicholas playing

(01:38):
the Hearts Club band and small tomBoys decided to try to get big,
and they go to the big cityand they're corrupted by the music industry,
and and Peter Frampton, who's BillyShears plays I'm sorry, yeah, I
said. Paul Nicholas plays Billy Shears. He plays Dougie Shears, he's Billy's
brother. And Billy Shears is theguy that's in the bandle singer of Sergeant

(02:00):
Peppers in the Heart School Day.So they go to the big city,
are corrupted and basically small, andthe small town Heartland goes corrupt. It
becomes like Times Square, and ultimatelythe four boys are rescued and brought back
and they save Heartland and they livehappily ever after. So I think,
so, yeah, I know,and it's a weird movie. I think.

(02:20):
The only thing I would really preferI always say that it's like Mamma
Mia, you know. It's justthey've taken all these Beatles songs, which
with Stig would Robert Stig with aproducer. I think you paid a half
million dollars to use twenty of theBeatles songs from Abbey Road and from Sergeant
Pepper. And the only album theydid, the only song they didn't use
from Sergeant Pepper I believe was LovelyRead a meter made. But he paid

(02:42):
a half a million, which isnothing now. I mean anytime you hear
a Beatles song and a commercial,I think, how much did they pay
for that? You know? Anduh and uh. And so they try
to work this plot around these songs, very thin plot like they did with
the Abbas songs and and that sortof thing. So it's it's but it's
like here's it. It's like,here's the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club

(03:02):
Band and Abbey Road make a plotusing most of the songs off those albums,
like figure out, and then likethe girlfriend's name is Strawberry Fields.
I mean, it's pretty thin.The villain is mister Mustard, yeah yeah,
and Strawberry Fields when she wells,I mean, this is spoiler.
So you're going to see the movie. Let's see it before this. So

(03:23):
there's your fair warning right now ifyou want to watch it first, don't
listen to this anymore. Yes,but there's a scene where Strawberry Fields ends
up getting killed and they have her, you know, in a glass casket
and they're carrying her too, Iguess the cemetery somewhere, and uh and
they're literally singing carry that weight.I mean it's pretty. It's pretty,

(03:45):
you know, pretty basic. Sooh, wait a second, I got
it. I'm not quite ready.Hang on. Oh and you have the
T shirt. There are now fourthings at least in the shot now that
are related to this movie. Ohmy literally wearing it. Newsweek magazine,
Pizzas magazine. Wow, sit upa little bit so we can see the

(04:06):
shirt. Okay, it is nice. And this was what they gave.
This is what you bought at themovie theater showing, and inside it is
a one of those flexi discs ofsome snippets of the soundtrack. So yeah,
I was a fan, and Igotta say I gotta say thanks Jomp

(04:26):
to my friend Lance who sent mea couple of these magazines, and my
buddy Jeff back home, who heand I dragged each other to go see
this movie a thousand times. Itwas probably about about fifteen times, so
the people who are not familiar,this is a film that came out in
nineteen seventy eight. It's what's referredto as a jukebox musical, which means
it's mostly well known pop songs asopposed to a bunch of original songs written

(04:47):
specifically for it. And it wasstarted out as an off Broadway production in
nineteen seventy four, so four yearsearlier that was called Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band on the Road, andthen they adapted it into the film.
It was led the Castle was ledby Peter Frampton, The Beg's and George
Burns because why not and it alsohe was hot at the moment, so

(05:12):
it kind of makes sense. Alsofeatures Steve Martin, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper,
earth Win in Fire, Billy Prestonamong the many big stars in it.
Aerosmith's cover of a Come Together Ithink is probably the most well known
song to come out of it thatactually made it out of the movie basically
and into maybe onto radios. Ohand while the earth Win in Fire got
to get You into My Life.That's played a lot still, so those

(05:35):
two are classics. And I dothink Billy Preston's Get Back is spectacular and
the premise is a bit silly butright, but I do think his version
of that was good. You're rightat the end, like the finale song,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I loved it. I mean,
I'm the weather being coming to lifewas a bit I wish I was

(05:55):
in the room watching you watching it. Yeah, I know you're a fan,
but here. It was not wellreceived when it came out. VH
one is ranked at number seventy sixon their one hundred Most Shocking Moments in
Rock and Roll. It was aminor success, though it did not bomb.
It made twenty and a half millionoff of a thirteen million dollar budget,

(06:17):
and but the studios to put itout, which were universal and paramount,
they had huge expectations. It wasa lost eleven years after Sergeant Pepper's
so the music wasn't timely, butthe stars in it were the hot start
and the album charted again. TheBeatles album charted again after this came out,
and the reason that they didn't everbreak even with this movie, I

(06:41):
mean twenty million is respectable at thattime. But the deals they made for
this, they didn't pay any ofthe performers to perform in the movie.
They get them a cut. Sothey said the money had to hit thirty
million to even come close to breakingeven because all the all the people were
given a cut by Robert State andStigwood. You know, he produced Grease

(07:02):
and Saturday Night Fever. Grace onlyopened a few weeks before Sargeant Pepper.
I mean he was on top ofit and then and Saturday Night Fever was
the year before, so he wason a roll. He did Tommy,
he did Jesus Christ Superstar. Stigwoodhad a lot going on back then.
He had his finger on the pulseand he failed with Sargeant Pepper. But

(07:23):
it's you know, universal hope thatit would be quote this generation's gone with
the wind. Yeah, I can'timagine. And Robin Gibb of the BGS,
before the film came out, said, kids today don't know the Beatles,
Sergeant Pepper, and when those whodo see our film and hear us
doing it, that will be theversion they relate to. And remember,

(07:44):
unfortunately, the Beatles will be secondary. You see, there is no such
thing as the Beatles. They don'texist as a band and never perform Sergeant
Pepper Live. In any case,when ours comes out, it will be
in effect as if there's never existed. That shouldn't have happened, that should
not have happened. That's embarrassing.And I'm sure Robin Gibb were still alive

(08:07):
today, he'd be mortified by sayingyeah, of course, like all the
Beg's are mortified by this movie,which really bugs my ass. They all
are with this movie. Pardon becauseyou're proud of I mean, you love
it. Obviously you saw in theI mean they have to more than that,
but but they have to own thatyou've been part of it, you
know. And they signed up forit, and I guess it was an

(08:30):
unpleasant experience filming it because the Beg'sand Frampton were sort of fighting over billing.
And you know who's going to getX song now. The girl who
plays Strawberry Fields, her name isSandy Farina. And I used to work
as a as a chauffeur for arecording company did commercial recording like sixty second,
thirty second commercial music, and theywere doing a campaign for Oldsmobile back

(08:52):
in the eighties and they had mepick up this actress at at Chicago Airport
and it was Sandy Farina. I'mlike, what Strawberry Field? Are you
kidding me? So so she getsshe and a friend of hers get in
the car. And it took mea long time to get the nerve,
but I did ask her, youknow you Strubberry Fields. She goes,
oh, she got this real roughvoice like, yeah, that was that
was me. And we talked fora while about it, and I got

(09:16):
her to sign my record, andbut she did say that it all started.
This is what she told me thatit all started during an original press
conference where Peter Frampton was tripped byone of the Beeji's by accident or by
practical joke, something happened and thatset off the whole tone for the rest
of the production. They didn't interacta lot of times, they didn't record

(09:37):
together, and the Beach's want anythingto do with it. I guess.
There's been two major Begi's documentaries thathave been out in the last couple of
years, and neither of them evenacknowledges It's like if you were doing a
dock on, you know, withGeorge Lucas. He was like, do
not talk about the Christmas special?Do not talk about a Star Wars Christmas
special. That's like yeah, youknow, yeah, yeah, yeah,

(10:00):
yeah, that's something that would embarrasshim. But but Sergeant Pepper isn't embarrassing.
I don't think it's chilly, it'sstupid, and it's just bubblegum entertainment,
that's all it was. And themusic is good. They sang pretty
well on it, and I thoughtI enjoyed it, you know, I
always was going out, but hearingGeorge Burns singing fixinga Hall was no,
yeah, I didn't. I didnot know he was going to perform in

(10:22):
it. So that was a bigshock. The whole scene at the gazebo
with him singing. I mean,look, obs not that he can't.
He's an old vaudeville performer and youknow all that him and his wife Gracie
Allen performers together, of course.But yeah, but he was on the
upswing too because he had done hewon an Oscar a couple of years before
that for Sunshine Boys. He haddid oh god, those movies, and

(10:46):
yeah, that would just come outlike the year before. I think,
yeah, he was hot. Yeah. He was the at the time the
oldest person to ever win an oscarat the age of eighty for the Sunshine
Boys and wasn't overtaken until Jessica Tandyfor Driving Miss Daisy. Interesting years later,
they tried to get Fredish Stare tobe him, but oh, that

(11:07):
would have been great too. Yeah, it would have been interesting. Yeah,
because he knew he he could sing, but it was it was always
a talk sing, you know,almost to sly what. Oh, no,
George was singing. He was propersinging during it. Yeah, he
wasn't. And he he was stilltouring with his live act at this point
in the eight end of the eighties, he was still touring with his live
act. You know, we dohis nightclub act that he was famous for

(11:28):
here. He released six comedy albumsand his last film appearance is like a
guilty Pleasure of mine. I lovethe Radio Land Murders. I've ever seen
that which we mentioned George Lucas.I think it was a George Lucas production
off of original story idea by him. You should watch it. It's mad
cap comedy but made in nineteen ninetyfour, and it is it's all about

(11:50):
the opening night of this radio stationin like the nineteen thirties, I believe
thirties or forties. And but it'sa mad cap comedy. People keep dying.
So it's a comedy people keep dying. I'm Bobcats in it. Oh
funny, Okay, yeah, it'she's a bit part of it's great.
But but what it is is becausethere's a bunch of it's a radio show,
like a variety program radio show.So they have all these people.

(12:11):
I think Rosemary Clooney maybe makes anappearance in it, and George Byrne pops
up doing his nightclub act for abit. Like it's really really cool.
It's really well done. I meanI like it. It was not the
right comedy for its time when theyget the Swan song, when they get
one last good performance, you know, like right getting Edwards scissor Hands,
you know, a little bit different, but still it was a really Yeah.

(12:31):
I loved that his last performance onhis last performance on film, as
him holding a stovie on stage doinghis nightclub act, like telling jokes.
I love that. So anyways,but yeah, that was his last appearance
in nineteen ninety four, and hehe died literally he worked right up until
he died. He was a hundredyears old and still working those last that
last like a few weeks. Idon't He died in March ninth, nineteen

(12:52):
ninety six of old age. Maybehe wasn't so, yeah, he didn't.
Well they say he made his hundred'sbirthday. I don't think he ever
did. Because it was an industry. I mean there were television specials,
there were magazines, and there wasno word about him for quite a while.
And but he was one that thatwhen I don't know if I told
the story, but I used todo the tour. We used to see

(13:13):
him coming home every day. Itwas like one o'clock in the afternoon,
and you'd see the car coming home. We used to see him like you
see the top of his little headwith his glasses then in front of me.
I have a photo of him andhis driveway the night I met him,
because the day I metic because Igot the early Yeah, back to
his story already, I must upand I had, so I decided to

(13:33):
like I did with Dean Martin,I got there just before his car pulled
up, So I met him andhis driveway, and I had my Sergeant
Pepper album, and I asked himto autograph it for me, and we
talked for a minute about it,like I wouldn't that great being part of
that movie and he's like yeah,whatever, like yeah exactly. But he
was, I mean, he wassuper nice. And the driver made you
know, it was like come on, we're going in now, but it

(13:56):
was tell me you you have somethingfrom his house? Oh yeah. So
when when George was dying, theyhad already sold the house at the end
of his life, with the rightsthat he remained in the house until he
dies, and they so like aweek after he died, they were gutting
the house. So we decided togo there and just I just pretended like

(14:16):
I worked there, and I wentin the front door, and I walked
around and went to his den.I got a light switch from his den.
It was just laying because I knewthey were going to be gutting it.
It was all paneling and stuff likethat. And then walked through the
house to the backyard and I sawthe pool. When I saw the pool,
house doors were laying there. Andthen the next day, while I
was on tour, I saw theskip in the driveway and the pool doors
were in the skip in the dumpsterand night. Yeah, so my friend

(14:41):
and I went back late that night. I was driving a Dodge Colt with
stick shift, and we went andgot one of the doors and put it
on top of my cold. Wedidn't not, we didn't. We were
just holding on to it and Ihad stick shift. We're driving down Sunset
Boulevard into into West Hollywood with GeorgeBurn's door hanging off the roof. And
then we went back for another one. I mean it was but yeah,

(15:03):
but it was from George's house andI saw them there and it was cool.
But George was That was cool.It was a neat thing to meet
George. I like that. Soare you saying they started gutting the house
before he died? No? No, immediately immediately, Okay, okay,
yeah, okay. So I justwondered if it was technically before they announced
his death, if the people whobought the house were like, hey,

(15:24):
you can play whatever game you wantwith the public about not announcing he's dead.
But oh, the contract says,we get this, this is ours
when he dies. We're not gonnawait for you to yeah, you know,
But if it was the week afterhe his official death, announcement,
then maybe he really did die,you know, yeah, maybe or whatever
it was. Yeah, it's possible. I just you know, he wasn't

(15:45):
seen or heard, and I knowhe was within in ill health. So
so lot of things. It's likeBob Hope. I don't think Bob Hope
even made it. The conspiracy ofmaking it to be a senti sentigenarian,
right, it was an industry.Look at Patty White, you know,
I mean, she couldn't sup publicfor that, but she did die like

(16:07):
a week and Bob Barker ninety nine, but they would have been if they
made it to a hundred, theywould have been TV specials and all that
kind of watch with Betty White.So that was the joke with Bob Barker
when he passed away, was thathe got us close to one hundred without
going over. That's like a gameand yeah, it's surprises, right joke.
Yeah. Yeah. So we've talkeda minute ago about Robert Stigwood,

(16:33):
and he was the producer of thefilm, and he was at one point
considered, especially like when this filmcame out in this era, one of
the most powerful people in entertainment becausehe owned, he managed the BGS Cream
and Andy Gibb. He also hadhis own record company and he was producing
film and he's producing these musicals likeGrease and Saturday the Night Fever, and

(16:56):
he his artists are in the musicals. So in essence, you know,
sort of double dipping in that he'sprofiting off the movie and then he also
owns the distribution and publishing rights tothe soundtracks, so he's making money off
of that also, and they wouldbe it was. There was one quote
I read the basic It was likeit was not since like the studio system
days, you know, when thestudios were all powerful in Hollywood. Did

(17:18):
somebody have that much power where theycontrolled all aspects of something like that.
Yeah, that soundtrack was yeah.I mean that had so many that was
huge advanced sales on that soundtrack becausethere was so much hype about this movie.
And I guess there was a lotof black market albums made out there
in cassettes and eight tracks, itsort And they say that because it because

(17:41):
the after the word of mouth gotout that the critics really panned it,
they were returning the records and theysay that Targe and Pepper was the only
album that ever sold platinum and wasreturned double platinum because people were people were
getting refunds for these black market takes. But it's still a good it's a

(18:02):
good soundtrack. I mean, it'sjust like an album of covers, you
know, that's all stick wood Onfor the stage produced Hair and Jesus Christ
Superstar, which was with Tom Ohorganof course, who uh produced you know,
the the off Broadway production that thiswas based off of, so you
can see what their relationship came from. And let's turn those are he you
know, massive hits for us.Let's turn this and I just did.

(18:23):
Let's mix the guy that came upwith Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar with the
guy who produced the films that dayand I Fever and Greece. What could
go wrong? Right? Yeah?Yeah, that first production that starred Ted
Neely, who's who's ended up starringin Jesus Christ Superstar. And also the
guy from he went to my highschool actually, uh, the guy from

(18:45):
The Warriors, David Patrick Kelly.He graduated from my high school. He's
the guy in the Warriors that wasyou know, the clinging the bottles together
and say Warriors and uh yeah,yeah, it's just kind of funny I
didn't realize that he was in theoriginal stage production, so they took it
same with Hair, which a lotof the people from Hair and Jesus Christ
Superstar in London went out to makethe Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry,

(19:07):
Chiel Bryan and all those guys werein all of those productions and it's
pretty incestuous at that point. SoStigwood passed away on January fourth, twenty
sixteen. He was eighty one yearsold, and they did not give a
cause for that. Yeah, butyeah, Michael Schultz, the director,
he yeah, he was. He'sstill alive. But him last week,

(19:33):
Yeah, I said, can Iyou know, I want to give Sarger
Pepper some love? Would you?Would you? Could you give me twenty
minutes and I'll see what happens,I hope. So, oh that'd be
awesome. Yeah, he's he's stillalive. He is. He's black and
a graduate of Princeton. I meanhe graduated Princeton as an African American in
you Know the Heart of the nineteensixties. And he also directed Which Way

(19:55):
Is Up? With Richard Pryor,And he directed Denzel Washington's film debut,
A carbon Copy in nineteen eighty one, and at the time this film,
Sergeant Peppers was the largest budget everentrusted to an African American film director.
They had that list right, andthen unfortunately, you know, it was

(20:21):
not a huge success that they thoughtit would be. But it was.
I have to say it was wellmade. It was well shot. It
was well put together for sure,even though it didn't do well. You
know, I never felt super lowbudget and crappy, like the all the
shots were nice. The staging wasgreat, like yeah, and it was
it was his job. Yeah,it looked really, really good. The
production designer did a really good jobwith it. The only thing I will

(20:44):
say, the major thing I don'tlike about it is pretty much the whole
format of it. I don't I'mnot a fan of the silent movie thing.
You know, they never spoke.George Burns was the only person that
ever spoke in the movie. Yeah, there's no plot. Yeah, and
I know there's a plot, butyou know what I mean, it didn't
there was no there was no dialogueto move this incredibly complicated plot along,
you know what I mean. Theyhad these silent silent film titles every once

(21:07):
in a while. Yeah, butyeah, I would have preferred their jopen
dialogue, but they were just like, look, we don't want to make
these musicians act. Yeah, andeven they were really it was really over
the top of the expressions they werethey had to emote, I guess like
that, you know, but itwas always like it was like early,
just kind of showing the scenery abit in that way, but it did

(21:32):
look good. Tom O'Horgan, whowas the one who produced the off Broadway
production in the film, was thenbased on who also produced Hair for which
he was Tony nominated, and JesusChrist Superstar on Broadway, which I presume
is where him and Stigwood got together. He did not have a lot of
luck and film musicals unfortunately, buthe you know, obviously made great money

(21:52):
off of Broadway, and his loftin Manhattan was famous for its parties.
He had a three thousand square footloft and it was famous for its celebrity
parties and mister Rogers filled an episodethere in nineteen eighty five. Because O'Regan
had owned a huge collection of unusualmusical instruments that he had on display all
throughout his apartment, kind of inchronological order, I think of you know

(22:17):
how old they went back, whichI think is really really cool and interesting.
Yeah, it is. That isspeaking of instruments, the coronet,
the Sergeant Pepper coronet. If Icould have one movie prop in my life,
it would be the coronet. Andthat was listening to the commentary track
on the album and it said thatthere were two made, and I know

(22:37):
that the one of them is ondisplay is in South Dakota, I think,
or something like that at a university. And then but I don't know
about the other one. But Ihad a I gotta tell you what is
the coronets? What is the cornet'ssignificance in the film for those who haven't
seen it, Well, okay,so are these four instruments that are in

(23:00):
the Sergeant Pepper Museum in Heartland thatare supposed to be the key to happiness
and mean mister Mustard, who's thevillain in the movie, wants to take
away the happiness and take the boysaway to you know, to exploit them.
I guess, well, he wantedthe Mary Strawberry Fields. She's like
the agenu in the movie. Sohe stole all the move all the instruments

(23:23):
and handed him out to supervillains aroundthe country, and so the point was
they had to go at the ultimatelydecided they have to go collect all the
instruments and bring them back to Heartland, which would bring the heart back to
Heartland. And the Sergeant Pepper coronet, which they never actually really play in
the movie, I don't think,is just a centerpiece and h and so

(23:45):
it symbolized, you know, thewhole happiness thing. But I gotta tell
you this one of the best dreamsI ever heard in my life. This
is funny. I was discussing Hollywoodartifacts with Liberacci in my dream. I
just met at a book signing,and he surprised me and brought along the
Sergeant Pepper trumpet and gave it tome. In my dream, Liberaci gave

(24:07):
me the Sergeant Pepper corn in adream my head Beckon, I dated it
to July twenty fourteen, And howmany people can say that, You know
how many people are talking about thismovie right now? Two people on the
exact at this moment. Oregan diedon January eleventh, two thousand and nine.

(24:29):
He had Alzheimer's and he was ateighty four years old. And then
I think we've talked about this personbefore. I'm sure we have, of
course, George Martin, the legendarymusic producer and arranger for the Beatles,
often referred to as the Fifth Beatle. He was the music director and produced
the soundtrack for this film for obviousreasons. Yeah, he's a better person

(24:52):
to do that, and he wouldbe the only reason the Beatles said okay
to it. I think it isbecause George Martin was at the helm.
As long as he oversees it,we can trust the compositions and everything will
be faithful or done right, orI think they were. I think that's
I think that I think the soundtrackis genuinely good on its own. You
know, you don't have to likethe Beajs, you don't have to like
the soundtrack, but I think it'stalented and I think that there's a lot

(25:15):
of good stuff in it. Ilove he There's a great anecdote about him
when he was when he first metthe Beatles, and it was at it
was at his recording studio, andhe wasn't sold on them, you know,
just all those pop acts at thattime. He just didn't think they
stood out. But he he talkedto them in the like the control room.

(25:36):
I think he asked each Beatle ifthere's anything they didn't like, and
George Harrison replied, I don't likeyour tie, and that kicks. That
really kind of kicked things off betweenthem and then everybody started making jokes and
you know, but throughout his careerhe produced thirty number one singles sixteen number
one albums. Yeah, yeah,very When you mentioned Brian Epstein, uh,

(26:02):
he was partners with Robert Stigwood originallyand when st when Brian Epstein died
suddenly, Uh, Robert Stigwood wantedthe Beatles to go with them, and
the Beatles went, no, noway, We're not going with you.
But he's the way. That's whyhe got Cream and the Beegs because they
were part of the Brian Epstein thing. So it was Epstein's death, that

(26:23):
Stig that made Stigwood you know huge. Wow. Yeah, and I remember
he died, you know, kindof shockingly young, as I recall,
was pretty tragic. Yeah. Yeah, I mean he's the Fifth Beatles.
So was Pete bast So is BillyPreston. You know, there's so many
Fifth Beatles, it's kind of kindof funny, right. Well, George

(26:47):
Martin did not die young. Hedied in March a, twenty sixteen.
Allegedly he had stomach cancer. Hewas ninety mm oh, and I have
to say, going back to peoplethat lived long, George Burns, I
read the he he is estimated thathe smoked three hundred thousand cigars in his
life and he lived to be ahundred take that in American Cancer Society.

(27:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's funny.That's a good that's a good clap.
I just read the other day thatVanah White has clapped over six million times
since it's the start of Wheel ofFortune. She has the Guinness Booker World
Records for most clapping on TV.Yeah. Wow, anyway, an apparently

(27:30):
yeah, apparently they they're getting ridof her with the new reboot with Brian
Seacrest. So oh, I didn'trealize that she went when pass A Jack
went. I didn't know that.I didn't realize. Yeah. I think
they're gonna bring her back for celebrityepisodes, evening episodes or something like that.
But for the day to day business, No, it's gonna be Ryan

(27:51):
Seacrest and someone else yet to beI probably I probably mentioned this, but
like ten years ago, I rememberhearing that Wheel of Fortune is one hundred
million dollars a year enterprise. Ohyeah, and everything did it obviously the
show and their ad sales and allthat, but also you know all the
ancillary stuff connected to it, theWheel of Fortune, slot machines in Vegas,

(28:12):
all that stuff. It all tricklesdown and there's production to every country,
every country. That's true too,that's right that it was franchised out.
Yeah. So yeah, that madethat move. That show made Earth
Griffin who created a fortune that andJeopardy he created him both. I mean,
yeah, he just had money.When I worked on the Sony lot.
When I worked on the Sony lot, the two there's two sound stages

(28:34):
where they filmed those two shows,or next door to each other. Oh
well, that would have been coolto see the set. That'd be neat.
It's iconic. Yeah. Oh,Muhammad Alphaett died recently today. Just
now I just got the I justwait, I thought he was wait hold
on. I think it was interestingtiming, very interesting timing. The you

(29:00):
know, Diana died yesterday and Dodydied yesterday, and uh, and that
would have been what ninety seven wasthe anniversary? Why did I think he
was already dead. That is soweird. I thought he died like a
few months ago. Oh, he'sninety four. He could have died a
few months ago. He went tohis grave never getting justice. What do

(29:22):
you think do you think it wasan accident or do you think it was
murder? Oh Muhammad, if theywould have killed him a long time ago?
No, no, no, Imean I mean, oh, Diana,
I don't think it was I don'tthink it was murder. I'm not
big on h on murders. I'mnot a conspiracy guy. No good.
The only thing I could say aboutit is that, you know a lot
of people breathed a sigh of reliefwhen Diana died, you know, like,

(29:45):
oh, we don't have to dealwith that anymore. But with it
right, Yeah, it just itjust the royal family kind of went,
we're done. But uh but yeah. What I noticed about there, especially
during that scene with it being forthe benefit of mister Kite, when the
Henderson's and Strawberry Fields returned to Heartlandand there's a huge parade with the clowns

(30:07):
and everything, that was all verycirc to Slate, which is interesting to
note because the circ to Slate Beatlesshow, you know, is called Love.
I've seen that about four or fivetimes now in Vegas. I love
that show. And George Martin's sonproduced that music with the original tapes after
George had passed away, I believe, and since they had to they you

(30:30):
know, it's basically Love is basicallya what do you call you know,
like a remix, but there's aword for that when they take songs and
shift them and switch them around andtwo songs together. I forget what they
call that that process, but hesaid, I had to be really careful
because it's like putting a mustache onthe Mona Lisa when you're playing with the
Beatles original recordings. But in thatcase, the Beatles all cooperator. They're

(30:52):
the ones that were still alive.I believe that George Harrison is the one
who was really behind doing this cirkto Slay show and trying to convince the
others and both sound it's incredible.It is good mash up. That's the
word I was looking for. AndGeorge and John were both dead, you
know, by the time Love opened, but their wives attended the opening and

(31:15):
it's a great, Yeah, itis a great And then the benefit of
mister Kaite. It just brought thatright back, that circus kind of atmosphere
and how George Martin's son worked onthat and how careful they were about it.
But that's the reason I think theBeatles let this show go, let
the music go, is because GeorgeMartin was behind it, and I don't
think he did a bad job musically. I know that with the hype around

(31:40):
it, because the promotion on thisthing was absolutely insane. We'll talk about
that in a minute. That ratparty was what a genius idea. That
was the rat party that they did, which they filmed for the finale of
the movie. But as that wasanyway, we'll get to that in a
second. They cast Sandy free whoplayed Strawberry Fields. I guess Olivia Newton

(32:01):
John and Stevie Nicks were both consideredfor that part, but Sandy Farina was
an ingenue somebody I guess slipped somebodyat tape and they liked liked her music.
She was a singer, and that'sa while considering Olivia Newton John's connection
to Grease and yeah, Stickwood,you know, probably just didn't want to

(32:22):
do it. I don't know.I mean, it was it was flimsy.
I don't know, but maybe that'spart of it. I mean,
she didn't want to do Grease untilshe did a screen test, so she
was pretty much in control of herof her own career in the path it
took so so yeah, but itwas open casting for Strawberry Fields. She
was not a very good actress atthat point. I guess they had a

(32:45):
problem with her freezing on the camera. She was a bit intimidated by the
whole by the whole process. Butbut she also told me that after after
the movie came out, Hugh Hefnerwas really after her to pose a off
like a million dollars to pose nudefor Playboy, and she would she wouldn't
do it, but it was kindof you know, I interesting. You

(33:08):
know, Uh, Diana Steinberg whoplayed Lucy as in Lucy in the Sky,
she was from I guess born inMemphis, but I knew her from
Detroit because her mother was a hugedisc jockey called Martha Jean the Queen.
And then the group Star Guard,which I think there's also Stiga was trying
to appeal to a whole lot ofdifferent people. You know, he was
getting this band in this band andthis band, a Star Guard didn't have

(33:30):
huge pop hits on the top fortycharts. You know, they're big on
the R and B charts. Buthe was just bringing all these different elements
to the movie soundtrack, giving Earthwinand Fire complete rain on what they were.
They told him nothing, They gavehim no direction. It was just
them in concert really, probably theway they sing that song still, you

(33:52):
know, it was just it waswith the Spaceship Entrance. I love that
they were. They were really bigshow people and they still are huge show
people. They put on a heckof a show with the fireworks and all
that kind of business. But butyeah, so Diana Steinberg, and did
you notice when Strawberry Fields got offthe bus in Hollywood and they shot like

(34:14):
at the Riot House on Sunset andthey shot at Tower Records when it was
still Tower Records with the crazy limousine. Yeah, and then when they went
to stores, when she got offthe bus and she was looking up at
the billboards and that the billboards cameto life. That building is that that
orange building that's right at Holloway andSunset that used to be Carol Co.

(34:37):
That was Jose Menendez's office. That'sbeen built there now. But I noticed
in the background that the viper roomwas still called Filthy Mcnasty's back when they
made and you could see the Neonsign in the background. It's kind of
cool to see. I want tomake one observation. I did notice,
you know, Star Wars came outthe year before, and even though it's

(35:00):
different studio than what was behind thisone, about forty six and a half
minutes in an alarm goes off andmister Mustard Mustard's headquarters bus he would drive
around then you know with the robotsthe alarm goes off. This sounds to
me exactly like an alarm from StarWars. And later on in the film,
when there's like electric popping going on, like things are short circuiting,

(35:20):
it sounded like lightsabers touching. Itwas like that same sound effect. I
just wonder if they if there's somelink there. During the Steve Martin scene
too, they're fighting with hammers andthey're all coming electrified and they look like
lightsabers at that point, right,So yes, ste was again taking advantage
of all And did you notice inthat scene with Steve Martin Maxwell, doctor

(35:46):
Maxwell, who was making old peopleyoung again and to be part of this
future villain league because it was itwas Alice Cooper who played Father's son,
it was Steve Martin played Maxwell asan Axwell silver hammer. It was who
are the other two villains? Aerosmithand I swear to God Getting old sucks?

(36:10):
But anyway, did you notice inthe Steve Barton scene one of the
dancers is Dennis Stewart, who wascreator facing Greece. He's like the featured
male dancer in that scene. AndPat Burns, who choreographed Greece, was
also the choreographer and Sergeant Pepper anduh, I thought it was kind of

(36:30):
interesting. I thought Steve Martin's rolein this reminded me a lot of his
dentist role in Little Shop of Horrors, Like it's very similar, right,
which was you know, eight yearslater. Yeah, so I wonder for
sure it can't have been a coincidence. Yeah, I mean he had the
dentist. Yeah, and no,I agree, But then again, that's
Steve Barton acting too, you knowthat he is just over the top,

(36:54):
And yeah, so that could bethe case. The Alice Cooper scene was
really good, uh, you knowwith that we want money, we want
Money, and that was and thevery could have been like a pink Floyd,
you know, it was so psychedelicand the way he sang the song
because it was really good. I'veheard that that was the one. One

(37:15):
part of the movie that John Lennonliked was was Alice Cooper's because and he
was part of that group that hungout at the Rainbow It's called the Vampires,
the Hollywood Vampires. It was JohnLennon, it was it was Alice
Cooper. I think I think MickeyDolan's was part of that. Maybe Bob
Dylan. I'm not sure exactly,but they used to have the Vampire's Lair

(37:37):
up at the above the Rainbow Barand grill, and it's still up there.
Actually it still says Vampire's Lair upthere. But but yeah, pretty
that's that's interesting. And also AliceCooper was given like a three day pass
from rehab to do this movie.He was in rehab for alcoholism and they
let him out for three days todo the movie and they went back into

(37:59):
rehab. Wow, that's crazy.And I was gonna say Marias GiB of
course battled. I think it wasmore East was the one that battled alcoholism
and pulled the gun on his wifeand kids at one point, and then
they finally went to rehab for it. Oh. I think that was Wow,
that's fascinating. I know that hedid one that about Morris GiB He's

(38:19):
the guy that had the twisted bowel, twisted intense testines, didn't they.
Yeah, Well, so he diedsuddenly on January twelve, two thousand and
three. He was only fifty threeyears old. It was something I'd never
heard of, was twisted intestine,which then led to cardiac arrest. It
was very instant. He died atthe hospital and then I know his brothers

(38:40):
surviving brothers at the time, theyquestioned the treat when he received at the
hospital, basically saying, I guessthey put him in the surgery when they
feel like they shouldn't have put himin the surgery. It wasn't that urgent,
and that's why he went into cardiacarrest. I don't know. But
so it wasn't like septic shock,but it was bowled and open up.
It was just twisted and somehow affectedhis heart, which it would of course,

(39:00):
But that's fascinating blood flow or something. Yeah, how do you twist
that that's something you know, yousit a certain way. I mean,
I don't know, but it's likeanother thing I have to be afraid of.
I didn't know about until we didthis show. No, it's true,
it's true. Great, great,oh man, I know ways you

(39:20):
can die. You wouldn't even youcouldn't even dream of, wouldn't even think
it gone. They another one ofthe people that they I guess they were
trying to get for Strawberry Fields,mother and father. They were trying to
get Rock Hudson and Doris Day tocome back for cameos to do that,
which would have been fun too,That would have been a lot of fun.
There were a lot of artists,singers that were doing cameos, but

(39:44):
not not a whole lot of youknow, not not really any actors,
and maybe they didn't want to distractfrom from the from the stars Carl Striking
or Carol Striking whatever, I forgetyou said he called a brute. He
was mean mister must's assistant,you know, just the big guy that
was the muscle. And you knowhim from the Adams Family movies. He's

(40:07):
played Lurch and all the Adams Familymovie. Okay with Ralph Julia and and
Angelica Houston and he's still around two. Who isn't still around? Is Frankie
Howard. There was no Google oranything back then. I didn't so you
didn't know who. I didn't knowwho the ally was. So when I
picked up Sandy Farina Strawberry Fields atthe airport, I tell you Strawberry Fields

(40:30):
I picked up at the airport.No, but I said, who the
hell was Frankie Howard? And uhand she said, I hear he was
a really big star in England.So I mean that I moved to England
and I you know, I knewmore a lot more about Frankie Howard.
And he was a comedian and hedid a lot of movies. He was
actually and I think it was themovie Help, the Beatles movie Help,

(40:52):
but his part was okay, buthe was. He was in tons of
movies. He was in the hwhat the really famous movie is called carry
on movies like we had the roadmovies, like wrote to Morocco, wrote
to such and such in Britain theyhave carry on and they were called you
know, there's carry on, Cleo, and there's carry up in the jungle,
and there's carry on Doctor this seriesof movies, and then uh and

(41:13):
then also they had the the UpPompeii, which is a huge one,
and up the chastity belt, whichis he used was all the kind of
naughty Nazi behavior and you know,oops my bra fell off and jump up
and down, you know the kindof thing. Sergeant Pepper what was his
last movie? And he died ofheart failure in London. And he he

(41:34):
died March of I'm sorry, Aprilof nineteen ninety two of heart failure the
day I believe it's the day afterBenny Hill died. So they kind of
kept away from each other. Theykind of stole each other's thunder because the
next day the papers ran with BennyHill and Frankie Howard's death. But he
was a huge star in England anduh and but as for an American audience,

(41:55):
we're like, who I love gotthey got up from help. They're
like, don't worry, we'll putyou in another Beatles movie. Oh wait,
by the way, they won't.They won't be in it. You
get what you want in the form. It's kind of like, you know,
you know, it reminds me ofwhen Kevin Costner got cut out of
The Big Chill you know that storym and Lawrence Kasden. Yeah, because

(42:21):
he was supposed to be in allthe flashbacks. That was his big thing.
It's not just in the casket,but he was supposed to be in
the series of flashbacks and then theydecided the movie work better without showing him
basically, so they cut him out. And at that time he was not
famous, so that was a hugeblow to him, and Kasden promised him,
I'll put you in my next movie, and that movie ended up being
Silverado a couple of years later,which he got to play one of the

(42:42):
big star cowboys in it, andhe was fantastic in it. So yeah,
it's kind of funny. It's agood trivia question for Kevin Costner fans.
Yes, you know, but themovie was sold as the Beatles approved,
you know, and even thought theBeatles were going to be in the
movie. They he said, that'show the part was sold to him.
And then one time he was doinga show and Paul McCartney was there and

(43:06):
he said, oh see on theset, Paul, and Paul's like,
I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not going to be anywhere near
that set. No, he didn'teven had no idea what he was talking
about. So it's kind of interesting. And some people do think that the
Beatles show up in the finale.They swear they see the Beatles in the
finale, but the the Beatles theswaying hands and yeah, yeah, but

(43:27):
he didn't. I guess Stigwood didnothing to not encourage that rumor, but
eventually he had to say, no, they're not going to be in this.
Uh in the Majry. I guessthey're probably their people went after them,
but let's ride the publicity off.Maybe they're in it for as long
as we can until the movie comesout. Yeah. Yeah, And I
read somewhere that that Peter Frampton playedguitar on the on the on Grease,

(43:52):
on the on the shot on theon the song Grease. It was written
by Barry Gibbs. Interesting, yeah, because it was because Peter Frampton was
huge and seventy six when his albumcame out, So that's where you know
he got he joined on board withthis and they had the big Uh,
well, I don't want to geta hide of myself. Where what have

(44:12):
you gotten next? I have?Well, we already we mentioned Maurice Gibb,
but I was gonna mention Robin Gibb. You know both those these two,
uh of the three Big Brothers diedyoung, youngish he you know,
of course, the BIG's were theheadlining act of this film along with Frampton.
We mentioned that, and Robin passedaway on May twentieth, twenty twelve

(44:32):
from colorectal cancer and he was sixtytwo mm. So you know, how
often does Barry go to his doctor? I would go every week to make
sure I don't have a twisted whateveror cancer and the wherever. I have
respect for the Bgs. I likesome of their music. I'm not a

(44:53):
big fan of guys singing in Falsetto. I was listening to they played on
the radio that Saturday night Fever.You should be you should be dancing,
You should be dancing. Yeah,and there's one shine there's one point where
it's just maniacal screaming that you knowthat it's like and it's like it's disturbing.

(45:14):
So I'm not, you know,say I'm not. I like to
be. I like some of theirmusic, but I was really not on
board with a lot of Falsetto music. I just can't believe how how long
they've been a band. They've beena band since nineteen fifty eight, So
before this movie comes out, they'vealready been a band for twenty years,
you know, close to twenty yearsby this point, before disco becomes a
thing, before Saturday Night Fever blowsup. I mean, twenty two decades

(45:37):
of going at it. Yeah,and they say that this movie destroyed their
career. I don't think so.But you know, I don't think this
movie destroyed any careers. I thinkit's just you know, an afterthought.
I don't think. I don't thinkanyone said from now on, I'm not
doing anything with Peter Frampton. Youknow, I don't. I don't think
that that's the case. It provedthat he wasn't a very good actor,

(45:58):
proved done neither of them are goodactors, but they still had good music
come out after. Yeah, it'slike a bomb, but it didn't do
any collateral damage, just didn't.Yeah, well, nobody's blaming them.
They're not actors anyways. Like,who's gonna not go to their concerts because
the movie they were in didn't dowell? Right? Right? Yeah,
maybe if anybody maybe suffered, itmay have been Michael Schultz and you know

(46:20):
Tom O'Horgan, who never had successI don't think nearly in any musical film.
His success on Broadway never translated over, right. Yeah. And another
person who was in the film whowas very successful in Britain, and it
was Paul Nicholas who played Ducky Shears. And he was really good. I
mean, of all the people inthe movie, I think he was the

(46:42):
most talented in acting. And alsohe was a really good singer in it
too, so it wasn't this overthe top acting when it was silent.
Now he and Diana Steinberg who playedLucy, you know, we're basically crux.
But it was likable the whole time, and he sang really well.
I remember first from the movie Tommy, he played cousin Kevin thought at Cousin
and which is also one of myfavorite movies. But then he showed up

(47:04):
about four years ago on EastEnders inEngland, my favorite soap opera. So
and and one thing I'll say isthat age. Age is a cruel thing.
You know, it's a really cruelthing. Because I thought Paul Nichols
was really handsome. Age is justa cruel, cruel thing, and it's
kind of mean saying that, butbut yeah, yeah, it's pretty rough.

(47:27):
And and I'll say this is I'llsay this too. I mean as
well, since I'm a really rudeI'm on a rude role right now.
I could go on board sort ofwith any of the four Stars, any
three of the four Stars is beingkind of good looking, sexy guys,
you know, I'm I could beon board with that. Then we get
to Robin Gibb, I'm like,oh yeah, and I a lot of

(47:52):
respect for Robin Gibb. I'm justgonna say that and be with it.
That's really cruel. That was reallycruel. That was really cruel. It
was really cool. For a while, I accidentally was following like a fan
page on Twitter or fan group forRingo Star specifically, and I was just
every time I up on Twitter,it's all these Ringo Star photos and and

(48:14):
he's not considered, you know,the best looking of the four Beatles,
and but they just this group theylove him. Man, he is sex
symbol extraordinaire. And yeah, Ifinally realized why my feed was full of
Ringo Star photos with all these likehearts and stuff around him, Like yeah,
yeah, I mean I did seehis All Star band perform one time.
Though it was cool. It wasat the at the Greek We were

(48:37):
my my girlfriend at the time,when I were the youngest people there by
a couple of decades, and butit was great. It was great.
It's it's a weird like it's likethe guy that's sang you know, take
these Broken Wings. He was inthe band and he performed that song like
everybody in the band kind of getsto perform their big hit and then it's
a Beatles and Ringo star music ofcourse too mixed in, but it's like

(48:59):
it's like a party. It's likea good time kind of. I think
that didn't he have He had GeorgeHarrison's son, I think, performed with
him in the All Star band.There was talk for all about the four
Beatles sons getting together and doing thegroup. You know, Julian Lennon could
be John Lennon. I mean itlooked just like him, and sort of
Georgia's son is that way, Paul'sgot a son that's that way, and

(49:22):
Ringo I think has a son too. I'm not quite sure, but it
would have been really well then hemust because because that was an issue the
four sons maybe creating grew group,which would be pretty pretty neat if that
were to be. Yeah, youknow, maybe get together for a funeral,
which can't you know. Anyway,there's a there's a cover band here

(49:43):
in La a Beatles cover band thatplays a lot, plays like the Farmers
Market a lot. And they they'recalled Rubber Soul, Oh Good and Santa
Mica. They're actually pretty decent.Yeah, and they wear the wigs,
the mop top wigs, and yeah, yeah, there's a there's whenever there
is one show or two shows thattravel around every year that do Beatles tributes.
And I'll go to see any Beatles. I love Beatle's music. And

(50:06):
this one is called Rain, andthat's the one that we go to almost
every year, and I really likeit. I mean, the guys are
old now and the guy that playsPaul actually had a lot of plastic surgery
to look like Paul. But theysound good and they look good, and
now I like that. The otherone I've seen, I don't know,
it's called bee Mania or I don'tremember what it's called, but it was
not very good. But Rain,if they get a chance to see that,

(50:29):
it's it's very it's a very goodman. It's a it's a Beatles
illusion, and I think they doa good job with it. Yeah,
the so I did Paul Nicholas,I was gonna talk about, Oh,
you know one of the things aboutAerosmith when they were invited to be in
it, they didn't want They weresupposed to be killed by Peter Frampton,
and they wouldn't have They wouldn't doit, they'd change it. So they

(50:51):
had. So it turns out thatthey were killed by I think he I
think it was Sandy Farina that actuallydon't pushed Steven Tyler off. That is,
they refused to be you know,but they refused to be killed by
their competition basically, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then there
was the funeral with the I takethe glass casket actually too, that would

(51:13):
be another cool casket. Yeah.Well yeah, I know, I just
put something in it. But yeah, but uh but the coronet and this
and the door from Cielo Drive.Those are the three items if I if
I could get. Yeah, thetwo things I wanted is the coronet and

(51:34):
the door. That's those are thetwo I mentioned wanting the door from Cielo
Drive to a good friend and shewas horrified that I would say that.
So, but I would take it. I think it's cool. I mean,
it's sorry. You don't have tolove it. And if it's not
for you, it's not for you, but it's it's it's important. And
uh and yeah, I hope itends up in a good place. Yeah,

(51:57):
it's currently for sale. Yes,at last I looked at thirty five
thousand. Yeah, Julian's right.So but I it's it's gonna be up
there. It's gonna be up there, so I'm not I was really disappointed
that it went for sale because Iknew the guy who did it, and
and I knew that he wasn't involvedwith any of the creepy people, and
we had a good relationship, andI was kind of hoping one day maybe

(52:17):
he'd say, are you interested intaking this off my hands? Sure,
I'd still be interested in bidding onit, But then again, I don't
want to get into a money thingwith that because it's kind of gross because
it means something to me, andI don't know, just it just seems
like scrambling at it started go fundme for Scott to get the Celo dry
pick door. Now somebody offered that, and it's like, now I don't.

(52:39):
I don't want that because we don'tif somebody said I'll sell it to
you for X, you know,I try to raise the money. But
this whole, this whole grasping atit is kind of grosses me. You
don't know how much it's gonna be. And really the end, yeah,
and uh yeah, So I'm notgonna say if I had, if I
had unlimited funds, I wouldn't.But I just the idea that it just

(53:00):
doesn't interest me now. It disappointedme at the time, but now I'm
like resolved and all good with that. So but anyway, the Sergeant Pepper
weather Vane speaking to Billy Preston,that would be that was pretty cool.
Billy Preston, who actually played onBeatles records, so he's another fifth Beatle,
ended up being the weather Vane.At the end of the movie,

(53:21):
when everything goes to Helen, PeterPeter Frampton tries to unalive himself and Sandy
Furino, who played sharberry Field,is dead and then everything's going terrible and
the world's about the end. Butthen the Sergeant Pepper weather Vane comes to
life. It's Billy Preston, andhe makes everything wonderful again, and he
turns the b bad people into priestsand you know, stuff and h and

(53:44):
the good people brings back to life, which is a sweet ending for this
fairy tale, which is what itis, just a fairy tale and it's
just good fun. But Billy Prestonwas a real Beatle. I mean he's
sang are he performed on Beatles records. He sang on and to Get Back
he was involved with that recording.So so yeah, he I think he

(54:05):
can one of the one of themany fifth Beatles. Says a lot about
him as a musician, and hewas good. He's sang a really good
version to get Back. Yes,Billy Preston died. He died, and

(54:29):
Billy Preston died of kidney failure.He's only fifty nine years old in two
thousand and six, and he's buriedin a very unassuming grave at Inglewood Cemetery,
just a slot in the wall.But but yeah, so rest in
peace. That's my grandparents are I'vementioned that? Are they my Grandma and
Grandma Dorsey. They're in what InglewoodMemorial Park I guess is what it's called.

(54:50):
Yeah, right, next to theforum. They're about as close to
the forum as you can get.They're just inside the wall of the forum.
Really, I've been here several times. I don't remember that, but
it's the cemeteries, like across thecemetery is across the street. Okay,
okay, And there's a lot ofpeople in there. There's you know,
Olli fitz Gerald's in there, andEddi James is in there, and yeah,

(55:15):
tons and tons and tons of EdgarBergen's in there. But but he
was. He was also he performedin Ringo Stars All Star Band and also
in the Plastic Ono Band as well, which is kind of funny ish.
But uh but then okay, sowe go to the party. Robert Stigwood
decides that they're going to have forthe finale of the movie, that we're

(55:37):
going to have the biggest cluster ofmovie stars and pop stars that they could
possibly gather, three or four hundredpeople, and it was an all day
affair. He sent out and limousines, he sent first class tickets to people
in different countries to attend this thing. In Los Angeles. He flew him
to MGM. It was a twelvehour shoot for them. They had to

(56:00):
all be on on these bleachers andsing the finale Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts called
Band. And after that was Iwas reading in Pizzazz that these two kids
who were musicians who happened to meetsomebody involved in the movie. They got
invited to this thing and they werestanding behind Tina Turner and Helen Ready,

(56:21):
and you know, they caught HelenReady falling one time off the bleachers.
They had to do they had todo the hearts called band, Hearts Club
Band Hearts Club band that people onthe left are doing it. That was
choreograph is that people had a realhard time actually just doing that. And
after that was the party. Andbut the group of people that were in

(56:42):
that scene, did you did youget a grip on like who was in
there? Didn't? But of courseit was for people who don't know.
It was obviously inspired by the albumcover for Sargeant Peppers with all the faces,
all the celebrity faces on it,and it was just a who's who
of everyone who was big at thetime nineteen eight, So Peter Allen,
Keith Allison, George Benson, KeithCarratine, Carol Channing, I'm just picking

(57:07):
out the big ones that I know. Donovan, Ivonne Ellman, who is
a Feliciano, Leif Garrett, uNonah Hendrix Hart, Barry Humphreys aka Dame
dna Edda James, Doctor, JohnBruce, Johnston, Marcy Levy, Jackie
Lomax, Curtis Mayfield was in it, Peter Noon was in it. From

(57:30):
Herman's terms, Robert Palmer, AnitaPointer, Wilson Pickett, Bonnie Rait,
Helen Reddy, Minnie Ripperton, CheetahRivera, Johnny Rivers, Shanna del Shannon
Seals and Croft, Connie Stevens,al Stewart, Tina Turner, Frankie Valley,
Gwen Verdon, I mean, GroverWashington Junior, Hank Williams Junior,
Johnny Winter, Wolfman, Jack andthis is just I'm just reading off some

(57:53):
of them and all got together byinvitation from Robert Stigwood. The they did
it and then they got the castparty, which is genius because they didn't
had to pay him. There waslike they're showing up and they saying he
had to pay him. It's apretty cool, cool idea. Stickwood was
really good at promotions. He reallywas. And for those who don't know

(58:15):
what he looks like. This iswhat Stigwood looked like. H and he
was he was a piece of work, he was. But damn what a
what a body of work he had. And he's responsible really for movie stardom
and John Travolta because he saw Travoltaand Welcome Back Hotter. He signed Travolta
to a three picture deal. Itwas a grease Saturday Night Fever, and

(58:37):
then the third picture was called Momentby Moment and it was a love story
between Travolta and Lily Tomlin. Imean, okay, if you laugh about
if you laugh about you know,Sergeant Pepper, think about the love story
of John Travolta, really Lily Tomlinthe love scene. Well, and it
was I guess it was like kindof controversial. When he did that deal
with Travolta, A lot of peoplequestioned because Dravolta was known as a TV

(59:00):
actor at that point. Yeah,and wow, you just paid him.
You know what is a million dollarsor whatever to a for a three picture
deal with a TV star. That'sa huge risk. But you know what,
that's why people like Stigman got veryfamily, got very very wealthy.
They took big risks and they paidoff. Well, he certainly did.
And yeah, I mean, youknow, you think a million bucks back
then, you know, it wasnothing a million bucks today. I mean
a million bucks back then was alot of money. That was back when

(59:22):
you know, when mister Evil orwhatever he was below felled on James Bond
was like, you know, onemillion dollars, you know, to be
a millionaire was silly, big dealback then, right, yes? Yeah,
And paying five hundred thousand dollars,which is nothing to use a Beatles
song in a movie anymore, ora couple of Beatles songs, uh that
you know that's like, get twentyBeatles songs for half a million is pretty

(59:43):
incredible, right Yeah. But anyway, it's just good fun. Yeah,
exactly exactly. I mean I goback to that story of when we did
six degrees of Helter Skelter and thatstupid Beach Boys song that we wanted to
use, which we did, wasit right, Charles Manson? But it
ended up where we paid a lotof money to use the video because we

(01:00:05):
thought we would get around it thatway, but we still can't get around
it. Yeah, And now,and if I understood how fair use law
works. We would have been ableto use it without asking for permission,
but I didn't know yet. Helpthat was my first documentary. I didn't
know how it worked. Yeah,so you have. But it taught you
a lesson for the rest of yourlives, and it's just funny. It
still hurts that that wasn't in thein the movie though, that people couldn't

(01:00:27):
hear the comparison. Yeah, Istill think we should think about doing an
updated version of that. I reallydid. I think that would be we
could, we could. Yeah.Do you think like that footage of us
at Barker could be HD EAT atall? I don't know. I think
we shot it technically in HDV possibly, which was like a proto version of
it high definition, But I don'tknow. I'd have to go back and

(01:00:50):
find the original master files and seeif it's well. If you ever had
a few weeks where you had fromfree time, I think that that's I
could ask that a lot about it. That's interesting, Yeah, because I
don't even know where you can getit anymore, because you know, the
distributor for an echo bridge and theirteam, and I think it was they
went out of business and it wasin you know, the six dollar bin

(01:01:12):
and in Walmart for like a decadeat least, so so they no longer
own rights to it or distribution.The rights have expired. I think we
signed it to some other company afew years ago, and I think that
deals also since expired or is aboutto it. Either just did or it's
gonna like in the next you know, within the next year. So that'd

(01:01:35):
be it'd be a really interesting thingto do because we already shot the footage
is just getting the information and wecould just put it up on iTunes ourselves,
you know, and not go withthe distributor and just self distribute,
just just for the you know,the fans. Yeah, yeah, I
mean so many. I wouldn't thatGetting it on Netflix was incredible, incredible
right for that year, for thatyear it was on there, whatever it

(01:01:57):
was, that was cool anyway,and we could we could add so much
stuff to it, you know,excuse me, we do it once upon
a time in Hollywood stuff and right, you know, I got I got
a lot of footage on my phonefrom that and they're making of and so
anyway, just the thoughts, butit would be a really fun thing to
do. Yeah, So with that. With that in mind, I guess

(01:02:19):
I think, have we done this? Did we cover it? Did we
cover Sargeant Pepper, Sarget Pepper's OnlyHeart Club Band? The movie? Not
as much as I would have likedto, But as you hold up to
the theater program, I mean,all of these movies, you know,
if there's so much information, butit's all you know, it's all really
really technical stuff. But I justcan't can't love this movie enough. If

(01:02:44):
you're looking for fine art film,you don't go here. But if you're
looking to if you're interested watching it, you can rent it everywhere. Everywhere.
You can watch movies, Amazon,iTunes, you name at Google play,
it is all those places. It'slike, I think it's like three
nine nine or four ninety nine torent it, and you should go on.
It is a is definitely a culturallittle Yeah, Miles, that would

(01:03:07):
when he when he did the soundtrack, look at that. See there's the
budget bin thing when they cut off. But in order they they had to
this back then, this was likethirteen or fourteen bucks, which is a
lot of money. But you're holdingup the album from the soundtrack. Yeah,
yeah, And so Stig would inorder to add another dollar to the

(01:03:28):
price of the of it to justifyit, included a poster in in the
in the U which is a lousyposter. I don't understand why they felt
illustrated posters like that, but thatwas a poster that came with the album,
which with the xerxophone. Yeah,but anyway, that's how Stigwood justified

(01:03:49):
Church in the extra buck because theyhad to. He had all the money
going out to to the artists becausethat's how they got paid. So interesting.
But yeah, the movie lost.And but you know what, I've
looked it up on Amazon and Ichecked it out every one second. I
looked it up today and on Amazonthere's almost thirty eight hundred reviews and eighty

(01:04:12):
one percent of those people gave itfive stars. Only three percent of the
people out of four thousand people basicallyonly gave it one star. Wow,
So I think it's kind of interesting. Well, you have to figure it's
being sought out by fans of it'sprobably yeah, yeah, but still it's
good. That's impressive, I think. So it's very impressive. Really,

(01:04:39):
yes, very impressive. No,it's an interesting artifact of it's it's definitely
an artifact of its times for sure. Yeah, and if anyone has that
second coronet from the movie, reachout, yeah please. Before we go,
I want to say we also recordeda few weeks ago another Patreon episode,

(01:05:02):
so you can join our Patreon.We do extra shows in between where
we talk about you know, currentevents people did in our world of death,
people who've died, and that isa Dearly Departed podcast on Patreon,
if you want to go and supportus there. We're still doing it and
we're gonna keep doing these episodes againnow that we're not quite as insanely busy.
I don't know if I told youeverybody what I've been doing, but

(01:05:24):
well no, I couldn't have becausethe last show we did, I wasn't
doing it yet. I've been producinga Discovery series and going all over the
world for the past four months,which sounds more fun than it is.
And I've flown about fifty thousand milesin four months and did eleven countries,
just a whirlwind though, you know, two or three days in each country

(01:05:44):
and then you're off to the nextthing. So I can't say what the
project is yet. They have anannounced it yet, but it's a really
big one and I'm excited about it, and I'm editing it now. I'm
one of the editors also in additionto executive producing it. So that's what
I've been up to and part ofthe reason I haven't been able to to
do episodes for a while. Andthen you've been doing so much traveling.
Yeah, yeah, it's been it'sbeen busy. I saw your murder rap

(01:06:09):
on television a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, well that's come back in
the prominence because and this is maybemaybe we do a Tupac and Biggie episode
at one point we've talked about doing. But that case is hot again and
I have a central role in thecase basically being reopened, and there's a
grand jury meeting in Vegas. It'sbeen meeting for weeks now, and they

(01:06:30):
made they might make an arrest fromthe final co conspirator, alleged co conspirator
who is still alive. Of allthe people that were supposedly in the car
with the shooter, there's one moreguy left. They might It's very possible
they're going to make an arrest inthat case and close, you know,
arguably the most famous unsolved murder inhistory, at least in the past century.

(01:06:51):
So yeah, keep an eye onthe news for the next like,
honestly for the next couple of weeks. It could. It's already gotten a
lot of news coverage anyways, becausethey went to this guy his house last
month. They showed up at hisdoor and service search warrant, and that
is what drew the media's attention tothe fact that they're working the case.
But they've been working the cases,been getting worked for the past five years
now, just the public didn't knowabout it. So it's pretty interesting to

(01:07:15):
see if and the rest happens.I think I told you I went to
go see the car. I shotvideo footage of the car not that long
ago in Vegas. It's for sale. Yeah, the BNW seven series.
I thought that it would be difficultto get to, but I just walked
in and nobody came up to me, and uh nobody, Nobody stopped me.
I could have jumped in it ifif it probably got alarms on it.

(01:07:38):
But I mean it's got like aroundit basically right, Like it's kind
of cordoned off, but it's ona platform there in the middle of the
it's it's at it's hard to youknow, my camera. I had like
right up to it, and Iwas there for about ten minutes and nobody
even said anything. What's funny?Well, they want you to they want
you to look at it because everyevery few years the price goes up.
It seems like I think when Ifirst heard it out it maybe a decade

(01:08:00):
ago, it was going for likea million, and then it was like
one and a half, and nowit's like one point seven. It's like
it's still not selling. So what'sit. I think it's there to draw
people in, like you basically tocome in and look at the car and
then oh, why don't you lookaround what else we got while you're in
here? Right, because it's aused car dealership, like a premium I
think used car dealership. So butI mean one point seven for that car,

(01:08:21):
and you know, not to betoo morbid, but it's been repaired.
There's no bullet holes anymore. Youknow, that car was It was
a leased car at the time,and so after the shooting, the car
was returned to the leasing company andthey just fixed it and sold it.
And I don't know where it wentfrom there, but it was being driven
as a regular old BMW seven seriesand so it's kind of like if you

(01:08:42):
were trying to sell Bonnie and Clyde'sdeath car, but you would repaired all
the bullet holes in it. It'skind of like the reason that people are
interested in that car. Otherwise it'sjust another you know, in the case
of Tupac, it's just another sevenseries BMW. It doesn't it doesn't look
like what it was. But Ihad the bullet holes, it would be
you know. And then Biggie Suburband that he was killed and was also
a rental and his door with thebullet holes is still in evidence in the

(01:09:04):
warehouse for the lapd oh. Sothey let the car go, but they
kept the door. Yeah. Whathappened was it was some rental I think
it was Enterprise, I want tosay, was the rental company, and
they or Budget maybe one of thebig rental companies. And what happened was
they returned the car, and thenthe detectives got a tip that some body
shop in like North Hollywood had thedoor and was going it was going to

(01:09:28):
be auctioned, and they were like, no, it's not because because just
had a respect for the victim's familyand mother and everything. And they went
up and they confiscated the door andput in evidence, and then yeah that
the suburban is also recently popped upfor sale again. A few years ago
some people owned it again. Itwas auctioned off and they just put a
new door on it and painted it. And the people that bought it had

(01:09:48):
no idea until I don't know afew years ago, the LAPD showed up
because they were looking at the caseagain, maybe I don't know, five
or teen years ago, and theyshowed up saying, we might need the
car. We might need to borrowyour car. It's the one Biggie got
killed in. They didn't know untilthat happened. So if they if they
solved the case, if they solveBiggie's murder, then they're entitled to get

(01:10:12):
that door because it's there. That'sa very good question. If they closed
the case, yeah, I wouldbe like, hey, give us our
doorback. But I guess there couldbe an ownership. Hey, you bought
the car without this door. Youbought the car with the replacement door,
so that's what you paid for it. You paid for the somebody's gonna you
know, they will they I thinkthey return evidence if the case is closed.
If it's claimed, Yeah, Ijust don't know who you would return
the door with the bullet holes too. I think it's possible they would just

(01:10:34):
destroy it, which would be abummer. But if it's famous enough.
You know, look, they've heldon the manson evidence and stuff. Obviously
they could have destroyed that based onusual protocols. So you know those are
all solved cases. Put it ondisplay like they do with a lot of
the others. That's right, that'swhat they haven't. I have to get
back to that police museum releasing becausethat was you know, they have the

(01:10:54):
whole thing on the North Hollywood shootout, which is insane. Have you
been there? Have you seen that? I have no. I mean I
know that case really well, butno, I haven't been to the police
museum. I mean they have thethey have the guns. They have you
know, the guns with the nickin it. You know that the police
disabled the weapon. They have totwo cars out there, they have everything
the guys were wearing, all theirspent in armission. Yeah, oh my

(01:11:14):
god. Crazy. And then theyhave all the Onion Field stuff, you
know, the actual guns from theOnion Field murderer. When they when those
criminals abducted the two police officers,and there was precedent setting because the criminals
demanded that the one police officer handover his weapon because they held a gun
up to the other one's head.And after this case, they you know
that no longer because you turn yourweapon over as a car. So well,

(01:11:38):
in tying tying this together a littlebit, the Hollywood shootout, one
of the detectives who worked that caseand it was a big boon to his
career, was a guy named RussellPool and he ended up being one of
the not the very first detective onthe Biggie case, but he took over
the case with his partner about amonth into the case and he was the
most for a long time, themost prominent detective. And he's the one
that came up with this conspiracy theorycops had killed Biggie and it was this

(01:12:01):
this kookie stuff that he ran withthe got him a lot of attention and
books and stuff. But that's howhe cut his teeth, That's kind of
how he got. He got intorobbery homicide after you know, which was
the elite force, you know,detective team in LA After working the Hollywood
shoot out, the North Hollywood shootout case, although I don't know how
much detecting. I don't know howmuch detecting there was to do. The

(01:12:24):
guys were dead or injured. Yeah. Well, I mean, if anyone
waste a couple of hours of yourtime looking up on YouTube, there was
this bank robbery that went immediately wrong, it's fascinating. Yeah, I mean,
thanks, and and and if you'vewatched the movie Heat with Val Kilmer
and DeNiro and Pacino, it inspiredthe big shootout scene bank robbery that goes

(01:12:48):
wrong in that case or in thatfilm, the huge street shootout was inspired
by the Hollywood shootout. God,police were running into gun stores because they
ran out of gun ammunition, andthey were running into stores and grabbing stuff.
I mean, yeah, it wasthat's right. They were out because
they were completely outgunned and out armoredby these guys. It was crazy.

(01:13:09):
You know. It's before the policestation started buying all military equipment and stuff
like they do now, and blackrifles and stuff to match these guys.
On the Heat thing. I sawthat. I watched the Val Kilmer documentary
Valve, and in it they saidthat he his gun training, he took
it so seriously to make sure helooked like a pro that and his you
know, military tactics and stuff thatI he claims in the dock. I

(01:13:30):
believe that they will show military guysin the military, soldiers and even cops.
I think they show him. Theyshow the shootout scene from Heat,
because it shows the proper way todo like a retreat. Basically they do
a covered retreat. Is val Komberand these other guys perfectly executing that maneuver

(01:13:50):
in the film, And that's usedfor as like basically his training like this
is it is a textbook. Thisis how you do it. I gotta
I gotta rent that movie. What'sit called Heat? Heat? It's fantastic.
It's famous for being you know thereat the time, at least,
it was the only time that deNiro and Piccino had been in a movie
where they were in the scene together. You know. Wasn't The Godfather too
where they were there, but theywere two characters in different eras this one.

(01:14:14):
There actually is like a scene wherea famous scene and a restaurant where
they sit across from each other andhave a scene that my writing professor in
college said was a bullshit scene andshouldn't have existed logically, but it's really
famous. It didn't make any senseto the story, but it was just
an excuse to put they had toget they had to meet. You had
to have it. You had tohave a reason to get those two actors

(01:14:35):
together in the same scene because theyplay they play foes. One of them's
a cop and one of them's arobber in the film. Okay, yeah,
and what was the other movie youmentioned that George Burns One oh the
Radio Land Murders nineteen ninety four.I think you'll like it. It's fun.

(01:14:55):
Yeah, check it out. Cool. Yeah. I screenwriter friend pointed
it out to me, like agosh twenty years ago told me about it,
was like it's his most favorite,like underrated movie that when everybody ever
asks you know, what's your what'syour most underrated movie? Do you think
he's He's like radioland Murders. It'sjust it's very mad cap, screwball comedy
style, which was just not thestyle in nineteen ninety four. Unfortunately,

(01:15:17):
so it didn't didn't do well,that's not that's not what he yellen?
Is it? No? Nope?Okay, it's gosh, who hold on
i'll tell you. Yeah. Itstars well Brian ben Ben, which I'm
not as familiar with, but MaryStuart Masterson is the female lead. Ned
Batty is the like the manager ofthe station that's opening George's. And then

(01:15:40):
a bunch of cameos by people likeGeorge Burns. Oh, Michael McKean's in
it. That's cool, Jeffrey Tamboris in it, Larry Miller, Christopher
Lloyd. Oh, he's fantastic.Christopher Lloyd. I think he plays the
sound effects guy, having to comeup with all the sound effects at the
last second to come up with yes, Rosemary when he is in it.
Bobcats in it, and then abunch of a bunch of other people I

(01:16:03):
don't see listed here, but abunch of other like performers from back in
that era that they were able tograb. I'm check it out. It's
it's really good. I highly recommendit. Awesome. All right, Well
did we do it? I thinkwe did? I think we we did
it. Well, yeah, yeah, we hope that you enjoyed the show.

(01:16:25):
Here we go. The splendid timewas guaranteed for all. All right,
and we will we're going too.I think that was the tagline the
poster. Yeah, a splendid timeis guaranteed for all. There you go.
What a great logo. Man,that is a cool logo, isn't
it that? It's very nineteen seventyeight. Yeah, it looks like it

(01:16:48):
should be on the side of avan. Why does everything so insulting?
Yeah, it has to be thatway. But it's just a nice love
I'm in it with love. It'sa nice yours are very nice airbrush to
the heart with the American flag themeto it. Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah, so stop marking. Well, I'm not okay, I'll stop making

(01:17:09):
The show's over all, right,guys, We will see you on the
next one. Thank you later.This has been an episode of the Dearly
Departed podcast. Dig up more episodesat Dearly Departed pod dot com and on
iTunes and Google Play. See younext time.