MYSTERY OF THE TEXAS TWOSTEP

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:

SEQUEL FEVER

Written by Rick Archer 

THE GREAT SEQUEL MYSTERY

 

By coincidence, on the night Clay Felker walked into Gilley's in June 1978, the new TV show Dallas was the talk of the town here in Houston.  We were so envious to see Dallas, our chief rival in Texas, become so enormously popular.  Everyone said the same thing, "Gosh, wouldn't it be great if they made a movie about Houston!"

As they say, be very careful what you ask for.  If ever there was a movie that could be considered the exact opposite of Dallas, it would have to be Urban Cowboy. 

So why, you ask, is this book titled Mystery of the Texas Twostep?  Because nothing about the great Western Transformation taking place in Houston made a bit of sense.  One of the biggest mysteries involved all the talk about how Urban Cowboy was a 'Sequel' to Saturday Night Fever. 

Movies cost a lot of money.  How does a movie mogul decide if placing a great deal of money into a movie is a sound investment?  It helps to have a Sequel.  Huge selling point.  Sequels to successful movies are important because they bring a built-in audience.  It is important to have attractive, charismatic stars like the characters in Dallas.  It helps to have interesting locations, places like prosperous ranches and sparkling bastions of power such as the high-rise skyscrapers in Dallas.

From what I heard, Gilley's was not an attractive place.  "It's a beer-drenched dump".  Nor were the people who hung out at Gilley's particularly attractive.  The clientele was described as 'Redneck Rodeo'.  And we aren't talking about cute Rednecks like the Dukes of Hazzard.  No sirree.  We are talking about angry, bigoted people who flirted with Klan membership and the resurrection of the Confederacy.  We are talking about nasty bullies who thought getting drunk and fighting on the premises was the very definition of Saturday night entertainment. 

Aaron Latham wrote the article in Esquire that got the ball rolling.  Here is something interesting he said about Urban Cowboy. 

"I was co-author of the Urban Cowboy screenplay.  The script was based on a magazine story I'd written in 1978 for Clay Felker at Esquire magazine called "The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America's Search for True Grit."  Set in a huge honky-tonk in Houston, the piece told the story of an unusual love triangle: a girl, a boy, and a mechanical bull.  The boy's problem was that the girl could ride the bull better than he could.  

Soon after the tale was published, Hollywood started calling.  So many people wanted to buy it that I was able to get first crack at writing the script."

I pondered this phrase:  "So many people wanted to buy it..."

How was this possible?  Whoever said 'Country was Cool' had not been to Gilley's lately, that's for sure.  For that reason I wondered what crossed Clay Felker's mind when he saw Gilley's for the first time.  What on earth made Clay Felker think the American public would be interested in the story of unglamorous people looking for love in all the wrong places? 

I also wondered what crossed the minds of the Paramount executives who sat there in their Hollywood offices staring at the Urban Cowboy story.  What could have possibly persuaded them to think this story was going to make them any money?  Rich, conniving oil barons and their beautiful women might make it happen for Dallas, but it was a serious reach to expect factory workers and beer-bellied bubbas at Gilley's to achieve a similar fascination. 

But somehow Clay Felker talked them into it.  How did he do it?  I read an article that claimed Felker was very persuasive.  The article started with the assertion that Clay Felker was the master trend spotter.  Since Gilley's was a dump when Clay Felker came along, it was tough to imagine what trend he spotted.  However, once Felker and Latham were through reworking the Gilley's image, this place became a modern version of My Fair Lady.  Felker threw ugliness into his magic spin machine and somehow badass became beautiful.

So now I am supposed to believe Clay Felker persuaded some very astute businessmen that it was hip to be hick. 

You want to know something?  I wasn't buying it.  Let me be honest here, Clay Felker did not spot any trend at Gilley's.  He manufactured the Gilley's 'trend' out of his own imagination.  In fact, one has to wonder how Felker ever persuaded the moguls to make this movie in the first place. 

Here was my theory:  For forty years, I assumed the answer was John Travolta.

The main reason the TV show Dallas worked was Larry Hagman, the show's charismatic star.  People tuned in every week to watch with fascination as Hagman delivered his delicious brand of evil.  So, in my opinion, the only reason Urban Cowboy got off the launch pad was due to the star power of John Travolta, Numero Uno cultural icon of the Seventies.

I don't care how great a trend spotter or spin doctor Clay Felker was.  Without John Travolta, one can imagine the 'Western Sequel' concept would have been a difficult sell to Hollywood, much less to the American public.   Let's be realistic here.  It wasn't the script that connected Urban Cowboy to Saturday Night Fever, it was Travolta.  The only reason anyone believed Urban Cowboy might actually be a 'Sequel' was the presence of John Travolta as the Dancing Cowboy.

Everyone in my corner of the world assumed if the movie had John Travolta and dancing, then maybe it really was a Sequel.   As P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute."  I am very serious about this.  Everyone I spoke to agreed the master stroke was persuading John Travolta to do the movie.  A lot of people said they would never have gone to see this movie if Travolta had not been in it.  They fully expected Travolta would work his dance magic again.  Boy, were they in for a surprise when they saw the movie.

So here is the Mystery of the Texas Twostep.  How on earth did the muckamucks talk Travolta into doing this movie in the first place?

With his credibility, all Travolta had to do was snap his fingers and insist on continuing the Tony Manero/Disco story line.  Why would the hottest property in Hollywood agree to do a Sequel that did not reprise his Disco role?  As it turned out, there was a gigantic secret involved.  Unfortunately, to my great regret, I never knew the secret at the time.  All I knew was that once John Travolta's name was involved and the dancing angle was emphasized, I assumed the same people who made Saturday Night Fever were making Urban Cowboy [which was incorrect].  I also assumed someone must know what they were doing [which was correct - Clay Felker].

A lot of my friends reached the same conclusion.  We were bewildered, yes, but we accepted that the Sequel rumor was legitimate because there is another sucker born every day.  Kept in the dark, I watched in horror as all those Houston Discos went Country because Houston's dance club owners anticipated Travolta would do the same thing for Western dancing that he had done for Disco. 

THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM

So let's play a game.  Let's pretend that we are Paramount Movie Moguls. 

As movie moguls, we are very bright guys who have earned our job because we know what we are doing.  We are well aware that movies are gigantic risks and cost a lot of money.  We understand that one really bad flop can bankrupt a studio.  Indeed, there is so little room for error that a bad movie could end a producer's career.  We get paid a lot of money knowing full well we put our careers on the line with every decision. 

Unfortunately it isn't that easy to predict winners and losers.  Audiences can be very fickle, so how do we anticipate their reaction?  Some movies have surprising chemistry... Saturday Night Fever for example.  But others are complete duds.  So how does a Movie Mogul decide in advance which movie is a sound investment?  

We hedge our bet!  If there is one word that makes Moguls like us tremble with excitement, it is the word 'SEQUEL'.  A Sequel is movie magic.  A Sequel makes a Mogul squeal with delight.  "Ooh, baby, baby, gimme dem Sequels!"

'SEQUEL' is the movie industry's favorite word due to the built-in audience.   Sequels are the safest bet in Hollywood, especially if the star is willing to return.   A perfect example would be the countless James Bond movies.  Think about the James Bond movies with Sean Connery.  Once Connery was gone, the franchise limped along, but it was never quite the same.  You gotta have the Star!  

So here we are, a group of sharp Paramount executives hired because we have the ability to spot a winner.  Urban Cowboy is a tale about displaced country yahoos forced to work in Houston oil refineries due to their limited job skills.  Unattractive people, no nudity, ugly location.

What on earth can possibly persuade us that this story will make the studio any money? 

Gilley's will be the focus for most of the movie's events.  Based on the pictures, Gilley's is not an attractive place.  From what we are told, Gilley's is a sweltering, smelly, beer-drenched dump.  The crowd is so rough they ask for their money back if there are no fist fights to watch.  We study the faces of people at the bar and those who stand around the mechanical bull.  There are not many smiles.  Why not?  Because we are looking at society's downtrodden, people who were not born with many advantages. 

Perhaps I have painted too grim a picture.  A lot of it was the clothes.  I would venture to say the 'Urban' Disco crowd had a lot more money to spend on clothing than the blue collar 'Country' crowd.  As for appearance, there were definitely pretty girls and handsome cowboys to be found.  With nightly mobs anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 in attendance, there were plenty of lookers.  That said, based on what I saw at Gilley's compared to what I saw at élan or the fashionable Pistachio Club, you had to look somewhat harder at Gilley's to find them. 

Therefore we must hand it to Clay Felker.  The Wizard of Oz has done a magnificent job making this movie sound exciting. 

However, we Movie Moguls are not stupid.  We know Clay Felker is out of his mind.  No amount of lipstick on this pig would help.  

Nevertheless we decide to accept this project.  We do this for one reason and one reason only... John Travolta is willing to star in this movie!!! 

REVERSE TYPECASTING

Let's hop in our Time Machine and shoot back to 1979.  As I watch the Western Menace slowly strangle the life out of Disco like a powerful boa constrictor, I am certain the only reason Urban Cowboy ever got off the launch pad was due to the star power of John Travolta.  What I cannot understand is why anyone thought Travolta was right for this role in the first place. 

The moment I read Travolta was going to play a raw-boned, brawling Texas youth, I nearly choked on my Wheaties.  Why would they hire a wise-cracking Italian boy with a Joisey accent to play a mean, tough, rugged Texan with a thick drawl?  Travolta is a good actor, but he is not right for this role.  He's a tall, skinny kid who comes across as soft and pretty.  My guess is Travolta has never thrown a punch in his life.  Or taken one for that matter.  Not a scar or blemish on his smooth little baby face. 

There was an anecdote from the filming of Saturday Night Fever pertinent to this matter.  John Avildsen was the original director of the movie.  However, he was fired early in production because he rubbed producer Robert Stigwood the wrong way.  He was fired mainly due to his refusal to contact the Bee Gees as he had been told.  What was his objection?  Avildsen was a tough guy.  He could not stand listening to grown men sing in falsetto.  By the way, John Avildsen was the Oscar-winning director of Rocky, the famous fight movie. 

Avildsen had just finished filming Rocky and thought Travolta needed a macho image.  So he came up with a great idea.  How about a scene from West Side Story?   Let's see Travolta take place in a rumble, Sharks versus the Jets in the Disco. 

Robert Stigwood instantly and vehemently vetoed the idea.  "Travolta can definitely dance, but no one is going to believe that Travolta can kick some ass."

Stigwood was right, so why did he hire Travolta for Urban Cowboy?  Who is going to believe this guy is the toughest Hombre at Gilley's?  Travolta is undeniably handsome, but he comes across as so soft, how will they ever sell the brutal Fight Scene at the end?  Ex-marine tough guy Scott Glenn is fierce as they come while Travolta has probably never thrown a serious punch in his life.  This is ridiculous. 

I did not know it at the time, but this casting decision was not Stigwood's fault.  Robert Stigwood had NOTHING TO DO with this movie. 

Furthermore, the people closest to the movie, writer Aaron Latham and director Jim Bridges, both agreed Travolta was not right for the part.  They had two rugged Texas boys in mind who looked the part, Dennis Quaid and Patrick Swayze.  Both men had grown up in Houston.  They had the drawl, the look, the broad shoulders, and the requisite 'born in the country' attitude.

Nevertheless, we are talking about the hottest name in the business, so it was a no-brainer to bring Travolta on board.  That was a smart move.  The reputation of Travolta, supernova supreme, was the only thing that could have possibly turned this likely turkey into a serious money maker.  But why would Travolta agree to a role that was so obviously wrong for him? 

Overcome with morbid fascination, I wondered how the muckamucks at Paramount ever persuaded Travolta to do this movie.  As the brightest star in the constellation, Travolta was in the enviable position of choosing his next project.  Money?  Perhaps.  But one would think Travolta had enough money to wait for a better vehicle.  Why would the brightest star in the galaxy accept a 'reverse typecasting' part in a Kicker film with a lame script?   Since this movie was an existential threat to destroy my career, throughout 1979 I analyzed what was going on to the nth degree.  In particular, I vividly remember the day I completely lost it.  I had just read in the Houston Chronicle that Urban Cowboy was being pitched as a Sequel to Saturday Night Fever.  

SEQUEL !?

Are these people out of their minds?  A Sequel would star John Travolta as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever II.  A Sequel would star John Travolta as Danny Zuko in Grease II.  A Sequel to Saturday Night Fever would NOT feature Travolta leaving Brooklyn for TEXAS with a NEW NAME. 

Why was I so obsessed?  Think about it.  This movie is going to end my career as a dance instructor!!  If you hear a comet is headed towards the earth, hey, you would be obsessed too!  I was in agony every time another Disco closed its doors to make way for the inevitable C&W remodel.  So, yes, I was dying to know why Travolta was in this movie.  Quite frankly, I nearly went crazy trying to understand the following:

1)  Why would Travolta accept a role that quite frankly was a perfect example of 'Reverse Typecasting'?
2)  How did they talk him into it?
3)  Who was the evil genius that came up with the idea of calling this dubious situation a 'Sequel'?

It was hard enough to accept John Travolta was going to portray a tough Texas brawler.  Having investigated child abuse in Pasadena, I had met my share of angry rednecks.  Some of the men who hung out at Gilley's were straight out of Deliverance central casting.  These guys would crave the chance to tear a pretty boy like John to pieces.  If Travolta wanted to play the part, I guess they could paint a bruise or two on his cute dimpled chin.  But why would they call it a SEQUEL? 

C'mon now, give me a break!  No amount of Hollywood bullshit could possibly disguise the fact that Urban Cowboy did not have a damn thing in common with Saturday Night Fever other than the fact that Travolta appeared in both movies. 

I was so incredulous I just sat there stunned as I tried to absorb the sheer absurdity of this Sequel claim. 

It took a while to accept, but I realized if I was the publicist, I would probably say the same thing.  After all, the easiest way to sell a movie is to tie it to the coattails of a hit movie.  After all, Travolta's Fever reputation is what sold Grease, so why not try it again with Urban Cowboy?  Still, it took a serious stretch of imagination to think people would believe the hype.

The thing to understand is that having John Travolta here in Houston at the height of his fame was huge.  Travolta was as big as the Beatles or Elvis at this point in his career.  If you lived in Houston, throughout the filming you could not turn sideways without someone talking about 'John'.  Countless young girls swooned at the mere mention of his name. 

But here's the weird part.  Half of Houston hated his guts!  Anyone who loved Country music was up in arms.  As the smug, living, breathing, smirking symbol of 'Disco Sucks', Travolta was about as popular as Benedict Arnold if you belonged to the Country Crowd. 

Nevertheless, love him or hate him, YOU TALKED ABOUT HIM!  That included me.  Looking for answers, I talked about Him all the time.  I remember one famous conversation.  I was at the Pistachio Club one night ranting to some of my friends.  I was upset because I had just learned Travolta's name in the movie was Bud Davis. 

"Why are they calling it a Sequel?  I mean, who is Bud Davis?  Travolta played Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever.  If this is a Sequel and the Disco King has moved from Brooklyn to Pasadena for whatever crazy reason, couldn't they at least let Tony Manero keep his name?"

After pausing to calm down a bit, I continued.  "Furthermore, why would they hire the most hated man in Texas to play a tough cowboy?  Other than Houston, don't these people know that most of the state despises Disco music?"

Seeing smoke come out of my ears, my friends had a good laugh at my expense.  However they also agreed nothing made a bit of sense.  Maybe Travolta had been placed in Witness Protection and moved to a place so completely wrong that no one in the Mafia would ever guess to look.  Good point.  Pasadena, Texas, was about as WRONG as humanly possible to replace Brooklyn.  Every time I read about the movie in the newspaper or saw it on the news, they were calling it a Sequel to Saturday Night Fever.  I just could not get it.  "'Sequel' to what?" I screamed.  In my opinion, this movie had no business being advertised as a Sequel. 

A Movie Sequel is supposed to continue the story line of an earlier work.  My idea of a Sequel would feature Travolta reprising the role that made the actor famous beyond his wildest dreams.  They did not call Grease a sequel.  So why not do the same thing with Urban Cowboy?  Just advertise it as a movie starring Travolta like they did with Grease and forget about calling it a Sequel.  That would be the honest thing to do.

'Curiosity' is what makes a Sequel so appealing.  Audiences are eager for more stories about their most popular character.  "Oh, gosh, what is going to happen to our hero in the next movie?"  What is Gone with the Wind II without Rhett and Scarlett?  What is King Kong II without King Kong?  What is Godzilla II without Godzilla? 

Godzilla is a major motion picture star.  He is larger than life, by far the BIGGEST movie star in Hollywood (did you catch the joke?)  Godzilla knows that his fans want to see him return to kick some more ass, maybe eat a few kids and stomp on helpless victims.  So what is Godzilla's next career move?  Does he call up King Kong and suggest a Battle of the Titans?  NO!  Godzilla decides to try a little 'reverse typecasting'.  For his next movie, he will appear as Barney the loveable Dancing Dinosaur, maybe do a little singing. 

Suddenly Godzilla has a great idea.  As a ploy to make sure everyone comes to see him, Godzilla claims this is a Sequel! 

WHY DID TRAVOLTA ACCEPT THIS ROLE?

Truth be told, none of us could figure out what Travolta was doing in this movie.  I was comforted by the fact that my friends saw my point.  Trust me, during the Dying Days of Disco, my Die Hard friends and I talked endlessly about the mysteries of Urban Cowboy as we dealt with our grief.  Unable to dull the pain, there were two issues I could not resolve to my satisfaction.

The first issue we have already discussed... why are they calling this movie a 'Sequel'?  Thanks to previous chapters, the Reader already knows the answer.  This was Clay Felker's doing.  As the Master Marketer, Felker knew full well that calling his movie a Sequel was smart strategy.  By constantly emphasizing the dancing angle, Felker sold it as 'Saturday Night Fever with boots on.' 

The other mystery was my inability to understand what would persuade John Travolta to accept a role in such a strange Sequel.  The last thing I wanted was to see this movie succeed.  That is why it enraged me to see the movie labeled as a 'Sequel'.  I knew it was a lie.  I also knew this bogus claim would double, maybe even triple the chances of the movie's Box Office success.  As I watched Houston's media maintain the neverending hype that was killing my career, I was consumed with bitterness. 

As it turned out, I was correct that they were lucky to get him.  I was humbled by John Travolta's star power. 

Travolta was selling clothes and soundtrack albums like crazy.  As one Houston Disco after another went country, businessmen were gambling vast fortunes on the potential of Urban Cowboy.  Women paraded around in their outlandish country costumes with unabashed pride.  Female media personalities were making fools of themselves as they gushed over how charming 'John' was.  "He's so handsome!" 

These changes convinced me that signing John Travolta to do this movie was an act of sheer genius.  So what if he isn't right for the role?  This guy was worth every cent they paid him.  It was a brilliant move!! 

Except that it wasn't brilliant at all... it was a case of unbelievable Dumb Luck. 

The producer did not want him.  The director did not want him.  The writer did not want him.  

They made John Travolta BEG TO DO THIS MOVIE.

You don't believe me, do you?  Well, guess what, I am telling the truth.  They made John Travolta get down on his knees and beg them to let him make this movie.  In our next chapter, I will reveal the shocking secret behind the Mystery of the Texas Twostep.