Richard Prior Live on the Sunset Strip press book

Columbia Pictures
Presents
A Rastar Production
A Richard Pryor Film
"RICHARD PRYOR LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
Edited By
Sheldon Kahn, A.C.E.
Production Designer
Michael Baugh
Director of Photography
Haskell Wexler, A.S.C.
Written and Produced By
Richard Pryor
Directed By
Joe Layton
THE CREDITS
Writer and Producer
RICHARD PRYOR
Director
JOE LAYTON
Director of Photography •...................... HASKELL WEXLER, A.S.C.
Production Designer
MICHAEL BAUGH
Fi 1m Edi tor
SHELDON KAHN, A. C. E.
Creative Consultant
PAUL MOONEY
Unit Production Manager
JERRY BAERWITZ
1st Assistant Director
DONALD YORKSHIRE
2nd Assistant Directors
L. LEWIS STOUT
DAVID GROSSMAN
DAN HEFFNER
WENDY YORKSHIRE
Assistants to Mr. Pryor
.
DAVID BANKS
LAUREN GLASSMAN
JAMES ANDERSON
RASHON WILSON
Assistants to Mr. Layton
RHODA DRESKENOFF
ALEX DANIELS
Main Title Music by
HARRY R. BETTS
Assistant Film Editors
JOHN CURRIN
JOE MOSCA
SAUL SALADOW
Sound Editing
JEFF BUSHELMAN
PAT SOMERSET
BURBANK EDITORIAL SERVICE,
INC.
Camera Operators
DICK COLEAN
MARGO MILLER
. PAUL POLLARD
CHRIS SCHWIEBERT
JOE STEUBEN
BOB THOMAS
JOHN TOLL
STEVE YACONELLI
1st Assistant Camera
MI KE GENNE'
KRISTIN GLOVER
LESLIE HILL
JOHN LE BLANC
LEO NAPOLITANO
MIKE NASH
BILL HINTER
2nd Assistant Camera
BRAD BOATMAN
JOSEPH COSKO, JR.
GENE EARLE
CANDEE FOSTER
MAKO KOIWAI
MARC MARGULIES
BONNIE PARKER
SABRINA SIMMONS
DON THORIN, JR.
SUSAN HALSH
Camera Loaders
ROBERT MOREY
BYRON PEDERSEN
JOHN SEAY
CECIL R. WILSON
Still Photographer
PHIL STERN
Sound Mixers
BIFF DAWES
BUD MAFFETT
LEE STROSNEIDER
Boom Men
LEE ARCHER
VINCE RENE
Video Playback
COGSWELL VIDEO SERVICES
Re-recording Mixers
LES FRESHOLTZ, C.A.S.
ARTHUR PIANTADOSI, C.A.S.
DICK ALEXANDER, C.A.S.
Set Designer
VIRGINIA RANDOLPH
Property Master
SAM MOORE
Production Coordinator
MICHELE KUHAR
Production Secretary
JUDY SIEM
Production Accountant
RUSTY WARREN
Costume Designer
DANIELLE PEREDEZ
Wardrobe Supervisor
ELIZABETH PINE
LEE STKOSNE1DER
Make-Up Consultant
GUY ASTIER
Make-Up Artists
SIRLORD DONL MORSE
HARRY THOMAS
Script Supervisors
MARCIA GIRARD
CATHY NEWPORT
Gaffer
H01\TARD
Key Grips
JOHN J. MURRAY
FRANK KEEVER
CLYDE HART
Bes t Boy
ROBERT DE PERNA
Transportation Captain
JOE GARY
Lenses
&
Panaflex® Camera by Panavision®
Metrocolor ®
Opticals by Pacific Title
"RESPECT"
Performed by Aretha Franklin
Courtesy of Atlantic Records
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PICTURES
COLUMBIA PLAZA
BURBANK , CALIFORNIA 91505
"RICHARD PRYOR LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
Production Information
One critic wrote of him that "his cornie style is akin to
that of a thrusting rapier.
But this is a deceptive observation,
since his point of view is beyond punch lines and shock, examining
instead contemporary attitudes and piercing timeless banalities.
It is a rare form of humor that is both shocking and shockingly
brilliant."
The description, of cours e, is of Richard Pryor, a comedian,
writer and actor who is the sole star of "Richard Pryor
Live On
The Sunset Strip," a Rastar Film released by Columbia pactures.
Pryor is the writer and star of this motion picture, which
was shot live at the Hollywood Palladium on two consecutive
evenings.
Both performances were sold out within hours of the
box office opening, with Pryor playing to capacity crowds of over
two thousand which included celebrated admirers such as Jim Brown,
Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jackson Browne,
the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Stevie Wonder.
The canvas is larger than life as Pryor paints the world
around him, utilizing his own highly subjective blend of pathos
and urban realism.
With a mixture of wit, warmth and a delivery
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A DIVISION OF COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC.
"RICHARD PRYOR
2.
LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
that colors a remarkable array of characterizations, he takes
his audience through hilarious accounts of his trip to Africa
"looking for his roots," his early days playing one-nighters in
Mafia clubs and strip-joints, and finally, "Pryor on fire," a
re-telling of what led to the accident which nearly cost him his
life.
With Pryor as the producer, the team behind the camera was
guided by director Joe Layton and cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
Layton is an award winner on Broadway and television, receiving
Tony Awards for "George M," "No Strings," and "Greenwillow," and
an
E~my
award along with three additional nominations for his
Barbra Streisand TV specials.
He recently served as executive
producer of the motion picture, "Annie."
Wexler is a three-time
Oscar winner for "Coming Home," "Bound For Glory," and "Who's
Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?"
Layton's approach to filming Pryor in action went far
beyond positioning a static camera to record the activities
onstage.
In order to cope with Pryor's rapid-fire delivery,
Layton had two satellite stages constructed off of the main
stage at the Palladium.
"This gave Richard considerable mobility, which is the
hallmark of his act," Layton said.
"I can't think of another
performer as animated and unpredictable as Richard.
He works
to make a joke payoff, and he'll do it with extraordinary body
nuances and facial takes.
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"RICHARD PRYOR
3.
LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP "
To handle what Layton calls "Richard's marvelous craziness," he ordered six cameras to cover Pryor.
Four were on crab
do11ys, with two manned by mobile operators ready for the unexpected.
"And as added protection," says Layton, "we equipped
each motion picture camera with a video camera so that I was able
to monitor, instantaneously, everything he was doing on stage."
Not all the filming took place on the stages of the Palladium.
"We took our cameras up and down the Sunset Strip to pick
up the reactions from the crowds waiting to see Richard in concert,"
Layton explained.
"Richard has a following of loyal fans.
They
gave us some sensational comments, giving us a kind of prologue
for the film.
It serves to introduce the movie-going
audien~e
to
the wonderful kind of madness only Richard Pryor can deliver."
About the Star ...
RICHARD PRYOR got an early start in show business at the
age of seven.
Born in Peoria, Illinois in 1940, Pryor grew up
in his grandfather's billiard parlor.
By the time he was seven
he was wise enough in the ways of entertainment to sit in with
the house band at a Peoria nightclub, the Famous Door, where he
met such visiting guests as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis
Armstrong and Pearl Bailey.
Following a career that stretched from his stage debut at
12 in "Rumpe1sti1tskin" to cutting a brilliant swath through the
nightclub circuit, Pryor made his screen debut in 1972 opposite
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the wonderful kind of madness only Richard Pryor can deliver."
"RICHARD PRYOR
4.
LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
Diana Ross in "Lady Sings the Blues," launching what was to become
the Pryor "new era."
Roles in "Hit," "Wattstax," "Bingo Long and the Traveling
All-Stars," "Car Wash," "Greased Lightning," "Uptown Saturday
Night," "The Wiz," "Wholly Moses," "Richard Pryor Live In Concert"
"Silver Streak," a smash hit co-starring Gene
and "Bustin' Loose" followed.
~Vi lder,
His reteaming with Gene Wilder in
"Stir Crazy" emerged as a box office blockbuster, Columbia's top
grossing film of 1981.
Ahead for Pryor in motion pictures are two starring projects
for Rastar Films for Columbia release, "The Toy," which starts
filming in the Spring of 1982, to be followed by a movie based
on the life of the legendary jazz musician, Charlie Parker.
Pryor has written scripts for television's "Sanford and
Son" and "The Flip Wilson Show," and his work on the Lily Tomlin
television specials in 1973 won him an Emmy Award as participating
writer.
He won the American Writers Guild Award for "Blazing
Saddles," which he co-wrote with Mel Brooks, and received Grammy
awards for three of his albums, "That Nigger's Crazy," "Was It
Something I Said," and "Bicentennial Nigger."
If there are any lingering doubts about Pryor's special
hold on American audiences, the public's reactions to his recent,
near-fatal accident would dispel them.
Hospitalized, he was be-
sieged with phone calls, flowers, and prayers from well-wishers
of every social strata - from presidents to paupers to plain
folks from . Peoria.
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"RICHARD PRYOR
5.
LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
Pryor burst onto the national scene in the mid-1960's,
dubbed as the black Lenny Bruce as much for his brilliance as
for the shock value of his point of view.
That move into night-
clubs followed a number of jobs that not only gave him an unvarnished look at humanity, but also provided a rich source of
inspiration for his future cast of characters.
Working with such after-school jobs as packaging beef at a
meat plant, racking billiard balls at his grandfather's pool
parlor, and driving trucks for his father's construction firm,
Pryor bounced through adolescence.
At 18, he enlisted in the
Army and spent three years with an airborne division.
Discharged in 1960, he traveled around the country ending
up in Canada, where he made his debut as a comedian-emcee in
small nightclubs.
Pryor kept devising, testing, and polishing his acerbic
style and his incisive observations.
When the nightclubs beckoned
in the mid-1960's, so did top television shows and opportunities
for exposure on record albums.
But by the time he hit 30, he'd
come so far so fast that he decided to stop to re-examine Pryor.
He hibernated for two years deciding exactly what he wanted to
do, and then agreed to take the first step into motion pictures
with "Lady Sings the Blues," launching a film career which propelled him to superstardom.
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"RICHARD PRYOR
LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
6.
About the Director ...
JOE LAYTON began his show business career at the aEe of 16
in the chorus of
t10klahoma~"
graph such shows as "George
and went on to direct and/or choreo-
M~,"
"Platinum," "Two By Two," and
"Dear World," winning Tony Awards for the first three.
His most
recent project was "Bring Back Birdie" and he is currently preparing "Chaplin" for Broadway.
Along the way he has created some memorable show business
events by guiding evenings devoted to the solo performer, both
on television, where he won an Emmy and three additional nominations for his Barbra Streisand specials, and in Las Vegas, creating
shows for Diana Ross, Olivia Newton-John, Raquel Welch, Cher,
Mary Martin, Carol Burnett, Diahann Carroll, Bette Midler, Dolly
Parton and Mac Davis, among others.
While shooting "Richard Pryor
Live On The Sunset Strip,"
Layton kept a watchful eye on his "Barnum," which is presently
on Broadway, with a road company of the production currently
playing in Los Angeles.
He is also supervising the final details
of "Annie," the Rastar Film for Columbia release on which he is
serving as executive producer.
About the Cinematographer ...
HASKELL WEXLER, the three-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer ("Coming Home," "Bound For Glory," and "Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?"), was the man responsible for getting
Pryor
"Richard
Live On The Sunset Strip" on film.
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"RICHARD PRYOR
7.
LIVE ON THE SUNSET STRIP"
Deeply rooted in the documentary genre, Wexler has successfully crossed the bridge to commercial motion pictures.
His
trademark has always been a freshness and vitality that put him
in constant demand for making commercials, industrial films, and
memorable features.
His films include "The Savage Eye," "Angel Baby," "The
Hoodlum Priest," "A Face In The Rain," "America, America," "The
Best Man,"I1The Loved One," "In The Heat Of The Night," "Who's
Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" "The Thomas Crown Affair," "Medium
Cool," "The Conversation," "One Flew Over The Cuckoo 's Nest,"
and "Bound For Glory," "Coming Home," and "Days Of Heaven ."
About the Location ...
The Palladium, the grand old monolithic ballroom on Sunset
Strip, is a Hollywood landmark, and therefore, it was a fitting
site for filming "Richard Pryor
Live On The Sunset Strip."
Opening in 1940 at a cost of a million dollars, the Hollywood
Palladium was the first ballroom in the United States to be built
on such a grand scale.
Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra were the
featured attraction for the premiere, which starred Frank Sinatra,
Connie Haines, and the Pied Pipers.
Over the years, such big band favorites as Harry James,
Stan Kenton, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tex Beneke, and Lawrence
Welk have played for the dancing feet of thousands.
Recently,
the ballroom has been the locale of the Emmy Awards, the Grammy
Awards, the Golden Globes, the Entertainment Hall of Fame Awards,
and other entertainment industry events.
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COLUMB IA PLAZA
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HASKELL WEXLER
Biography
Haskell Wexler, the Academy Award-winning cinematographer
of "Coming Home," "Bound For Glory," and "Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?" is a poli t ical activist deeply rooted in the documentary
genre who has successful ly crossed the bridge to commercial
mo t i on pictures.
For "Richard Pryor
Live On The Sunset Strip," a Rastar
Film released by Columbia Pictures, Wexler took on a new challenge,
overseeing six cameras to document the comedy concert film.
When Haskell Wexler began his career in the late 1940s,
his political activities kept him out of the California unions.
Determined to work behind the camera, he began film work in his
hometown of Chicago,
There, and later in New York, Wexler's
trademark was a freshness and vitality that put him on constant
demand making commercials and industrial films, which is why he
was chosen to film "Richard Pryor
Live On The Sunset Strip."
In the late fifties, Wexler was admitted to the California
Cinematographers' Guild.
His early films include Joseph Strick's
"The Savage Eye" (1959), "Angel Baby" (1960), "The Hoodlum Priest"
(1961), "A Face In The Rain" (1962), Elia Kazan's "America,
(more)
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HASKELL WEXLER BIOGRAPHY
2.
America" (1963), and "The Best Man" (1964).
In 1965 he worked
with director Tony Richardson on "The Loved One," followed by
"In The Heat Of The Night."
In between those two features,
Wexler photographed Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in
"Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" for which he won his first
Academy Award.
Wexler's 1968 assignment was "The Thomas Crown
Affair."
Wexler very quickly rose to the ranks of the highest paid
cinematographers in Hollywood.
His newly elevated income finally
gave him the freed9me to make socially oriented documentaries.
In 1965 Wexler and his crew boarded a transcontinental bus and
spent four grueling, sleepness nights filming the ride to the
historic Freedom March on Washington.
Wexler's next major independent project was a penetrating
look at the crisis of the ·American media.
"Medium Cool" was one
of the most unusual and imaginative feature films of the late
1960s.
Wexler wrote, produced, directed and photographed the
film on location in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Blending a documentary technique with fiction, he captured the
essence of fear and unrest in late 1960s America.
He had fore-
seen that Chicago and the Democratic Convention could be the
backdrop for an outbreak of political protest and rage.
His
crew and cast felt the sting and nausea of tear-gas and the
blows of nightsticks during the filming.
Despite, or perhaps
because of, the battering, the complete work represented the
cornerstone of a new ·s t y l e of filming.
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wexLer ·s next major lnaepenaent project was a penetrating
3.
HASKELL WEXLER BIOGRAPHY
In the years since "Medium Cool," Wexler has continued to
photograph major features.
In 1973 Wexler filmed Francis
Coppola's "The Conversation," and in 1975 he won particular
acclaim for his cinematography of Milos Forman's "One Flew Over
The Cuckoo's Next."
Wexler's second Academy Award was for his
luminous cinematography on "Bound For Glory."
A documentary style is the stamp of Wexler's feature
photography, lending honesty and sensitivity to his compositions.
His lighting is remarkably natural and his camera positions are
equally unaffected.
Wexler has always been outspoken politically.
In 1975 he
was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury to turn over films and
tapes from his documentary, "Underground," which dealt with the
Weather Underground movement.
Director Hal Ashby, Jack Nicholson,
Warren Beatty, and a host of motion picture leaders held a press
conference and harshly criticized the government's action.
Wexler's first love is his camera, but close behind is
his devotion to cars and basketball.
An avid Los Angeles Lakers
fan, the cinematographer can be seen rolling up to The Forum in
one of his 12 cars, which vary from a 1963 Ford limo and a 1937
Rolls-Royce to a Maserati and Lamborginis.
"Richard Pryor
Live On The Sunset Strip" was directed by
Joe Layton and produced by Richard Pryor.
tanes from his documentary, " un a e r gr uun u ,
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