In the meantime, I wonder if any Beatle friends can help me. I've written a piece about the 'Ringo' special from April 1978 with Carrie Fisher, Angie Dickinson etc, but I have no illustrations for it. Does anyone have any images from that special?
Thats about all I could find on the net. There was another site that had three photos of Ringo during the shooting of the show (one on the bicycle and two standing there), but they had the copy and paste function disabled (bastards). Anyways, sorry the selections are so sad Bill.
Many thanks, but it's actually stll images that I need for my feature.
Sorry, I had to tell you that it is possible to pick single pictures out of this footage. Just give me the shots you want (by minutes and seconds) and I will select them for you.
Many thanks for your help. I think we may be able to get lucky. Im the meantime I'll try and post the piece that I've written about it. Would you like me to post some interesting tales of other Ringo projects?
Many thanks for your help. I think we may be able to get lucky. Im the meantime I'll try and post the piece that I've written about it. Would you like me to post some interesting tales of other Ringo projects?
Son Of Dracula (film). A film produced by Ringo in 1972 at a personal cost of $800,000. The original title was ‘Count Downe’ and it starred Harry Nilsson as the vampire Count Downe, with Susannah Leigh providing the romantic interest as Amber, Dennis Price as Frankenstein and Ringo as a 200-year-old Merlin the magician. The director was Freddie Francis, veteran of the Hammer movies and J. Fairbank penned the script. Commenting on the movie, Ringo said, “I just think that if Dracula were around today he would be into rock. We’ve got the whole family in this one – Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula, the Wolf Man, and me as Merlin. On Count Downe I went through everything – casting, meetings with actors, electricians, the lot. I wanted to make the film in England because it’s easier to learn at home.” He also said, “’Son Of Dracula’ has a great premise, which is that Drac takes the cure and marries the girl. I’m using all the elements: the wolfman, Frankenstein, Merlin, just the whole gang. It’s like a non-musical, non-horror, musical-musical, comedy-comedy.” Talking about the casting of Harry Nilsson, he said, “ The freaky thing was that I asked him to do it without knowing that he’d done a Drac photograph for the cover of the album I’d been playing on with him. So it seemed right.” The movie tells how Count Downe, the son of Dracula, is due to become the king of the Netherworld. However, several hours before he takes up this throne, he falls in love with a girl named Amber. She returns the feeling and they get married. The album ‘Son Of Dracula’ was issued on RAPPLE APL 10220, signifying a temporary merging of Harry’s label RCA with Apple. The soundtrack included dialogue from the movie in addition to songs, which included ‘Daybreak’, ‘Count Down Meets Merlin And Amber’ and ‘It Is He Who Will Be King.’ It was Apple’s fifth full-length movie, was filmed between August and October 1972 and was premiered in Atlanta Georgia almost two years later on April 19 1974. The film didn’t prove successful – yet a few years lager another Dracula spoof in which the vampire gets the girl proved to be a smash hit, ‘Love At First Bite.’
Son Of Dracula (Soundtrack). Soundtrack to the film Ringo produced starring Harry Nilsson as Count Downe. Excerpts from Ringo’s dialogue in the film is included on the disc, along with Nilsson’s ‘Daybreak’ with Ringo on drums and George Harrison on cowbell and ‘At My Front Door’ with Ringo on drums. Other tracks included ‘Count Downe Meets Merlin And Amber’ and ‘It Is he Who Will Be King. The album is issued in America on Monday April 1 1974 on RAPPLE APL 10220 signifying a merging of Harry’s RCA label with Apple. The album was released in Britain on Friday May 24 1974.
‘Our Show For Ringo Starr’ To coincide with the release of Ringo’s ‘Goodnight Vienna’ album in 1974, Graham Chapman, a member of the Monty Python team and Douglas Adams, who was to become noted for his ‘The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy’ series, scripted ‘Our Show For Ringo’ (a.k.a. ‘Goodnight Vienna,’) for American television, under the pseudonyms Nemona Lethbridge and Vera Hunt. Sadly, the show was never filmed and both Graham and Douglas are no longer with us. Graham was a prolific writer of comedy scripts for television, in addition to his work with Monty Python. He was born in Leicester on January 8, 1941 and died of throat cancer on October 4 1989. It was Michael Palin who originally created a character called the ‘It’s Man’ for the ‘Monty Python television series. The character was shabbily dressed and would struggle across difficult terrain before facing the camera, ready to make a statement – but he could invariably only ever manage to say “It’s…” before he was cut off and the opening titles began. Python Graham Chapman explained “One day we decided to give the It’s Man an opportunity to do more, finally to speak his piece, so at the end of show No. 28 we had Michael, dressed as the It’s Man come out on stage. “The idea was that it was going to be his show, a chat show, and that he was finally going to be allowed to get the rest of this important sentence out, which had always been interrupted. Guests for this pretend chat show were going to include any famous people we could get.” The Pythons initially approached John and Yoko, who agreed to appear, but they were involved in a car accident shortly after the offer was made and Ringo and Lulu agreed to appear instead. Graham had originally met Ringo during the filming of ‘The Magic Christian,’ the Peter Sellers/Ringo Starr film for which Graham wrote part of the script. When Ringo appeared in the Python sketch, Graham recalled, “This gave us the idea to maybe try to work with Ringo again later on, and so a few years later, Douglas Adams and myself wrote a special for Ringo, a part science-fiction, part historical fiction story that loosely revolved around a few of Ringo’s hit songs.” In some ways it’s a semi-promotional film for the ‘Goodnight Vienna’ album, featuring a number of songs from the L.P. More than a decade later, Graham was to comment, “The script was never approved by any networks, or by cable TV because I think that they thought it a bit rude and because, quite frankly, I don’t think they understood it very much.” The script is surrealistic and basically features Ringo, a narrator and a robot travelling in time and space. The robot is similar to the robot on the cover of the ‘Goodnight Vienna’ album. The album cover itself was basically a still from the film ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still.’ It showed Michael Rennie as the alien ambassador Klaatu with his protector, the robot Gort standing at the opening of a flying saucer. On the album cover Ringo’s head has replaced that of Rennie. Tracks from the ‘Goodbye Vienna’ album which were to be included in the special were ‘Snookeroo’, ‘No No Song’, ‘Husbands And Wives’ and ‘Goodnight Vienna.’ Ringo’s hit single ‘You’re Sixteen’ was also to be featured. The robot appears and grants Ringo the power to travel in space and time. He travels to ancient Rome, but in the garb of a slave. When a soldier begins to whip him he changes himself into a soldier. When he continues to be whipped he changes himself into Julius Caesar, just as Brutus and other senators are about to stab him. Eventually he finds himself travelling in space. One of the characters he encounters, Jack, was originally to have been played by Keith Moon. Ringo meets up with his double Rinog Trars, who the robot had mistaken him for and Ringo is able to transfer his recently acquired powers to him. The special ends with a scene similar to that of the album cover. Elements of Monty Python and the forthcoming ‘Hitch-Hikers Guide to The Galaxy’ littered the script. Since the special was never filmed, Adams used some of the elements from the script in his novel ‘The Restaurant At The End Of the Universe.’
Harry And Ringo’s Night Out. In October 1974 Ringo and Mike Viners, president of Pride Records, financed a film project called’ Harry And Ringo’s Night Out.’ It was filmed in Los Angeles and was based around Ringo and Harry Nilsson’s wild nights in the Californian city, with a guest appearance by Keith Moon. It was intended to be a comedy with half live action, half animation, but the film remained uncompleted and was never released commercially.
so in whose vault does it wait?????? i actually have the son of dracula......when i get some blank dvds i am going to send some out to the moondogs...but until then we got you tube for clips... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgM1PcY2R-U
Thanks for these notes, Bill! I am glad to learn the story behind the Python sketch with Ringo and Lulu.
I'm with Marshall on this: let's get those clips out of the vault!
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
I'm sure that i'm alone on this but, I loved Ringo's 1978 album, Bad Boy. Heart on my sleeve, tonight, man like me, lipstick traces are my favorites. but then again as a beatle fan, i love all their albums, as far as i'm concerned they are all worth buying. I love, Gone troppo, Beaucoups of blues, Wildlife, Sometime in newyork city. anyway, its cool to see Bad Boy videos on the Ringo special.
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