🏫The Ramones "Rock'n'Roll High School" Turns 45:🎉Front Row & Backstage Parties!🍾🎈
🌟We suddenly care about history, 'cause this is where we wanna be! What almost became Disco High somehow had Van Halen & Todd Rundgren attached! What did Julie London & Joe Dante have to do with it?
FRONT ROW…
Produced by Michael Finnell for New World Pictures, the Allan Arkush-directed Rock’n’Roll High School first hit American theatres for wide release on August 24, 1979.
The film actually had a sneak preview in Hollywood, before showings in Texas and New Mexico in April, 1979. As if on tour, it then went to San Francisco, then to Chicago in July, and it opened in Manhattan on August 3 of that year, before moving on to further markets later in the month.
Sometime in the fall of 1979, I must’ve seen the film well over a dozen times in various Houston area theatres. A 24-year-old me was in my third year of working at Cactus Records, Space City’s leading vinyl retailer at the time.
I not only saw the film because I loved it, but, I seemed to easily make new friends out of some of the regulars at Cactus. I had hoped to turn them on to The Ramones, assuming they had already established themselves as punk or rock fans!
When we find music we love, we’ve noticed, we want to share it, and what favorite recording artists were you aware of that had 90-minute “commercials” masquerading as movies playing in neighborhood theatres? Well, mine did…at least, that year!
…& BACKSTAGE
In each of the two years prior to the film’s release, I had spent considerable time with The Ramones when they came through Houston for tour dates. On July 16, 1977, at 22, I saw their Liberty Hall show (video above was made on the same night I saw them…the shirts match above and in pic, below), and dropped by backstage to introduce myself (photo below, taken by pro photog and good friend, the late Larry Lent), and chat a while.
I was either still at KLOL-FM101, the commercial FM rocker I was working part-time at, or I had just started at Cactus Records.
The next year, 1978, after their show, I went back, and they invited me to their hotel room. That story’s here:
My Local Source For All Things Sire Promo!
I had also made close friends with Houston’s local Warner Bros. Records promo guy, Rob Sides (shown above), and inasmuch as The Ramones’ Sire Records enjoyed Warner Bros. as a distributor, I managed to score all the promo merch I could hand out (and keep)! Thanks, Rob!
In fact, I saw this promotional standee in the corner of Rob’s office one day, but, sadly….no dice. He also wouldn’t let me have it! Riff Randall had one in her bedroom! The stickers you see on the standee were applied by whoever’s selling this one online.
Go West, Young Punk…and Hang a Left!
In June of 1979, two months after Rock’n’Roll High School made its Texas and New Mexico sneaks, I spent a week in L.A. to “scout the place out” for a possible move there from my Houston hometown.
The Knack’s debut album, Get The Knack, was released on June 11, during that very week I was there. That only becomes relevant when I also mention that I wandered into the famed Tower Records on Sunset Blvd, precisely during the unannounced time that Knack leader, Doug Fieger, had fallen by just to check out the store’s brand new, massive display of the album (their label, Capitol Records was mere blocks away).
What made the display so astounding is that, amid the hundreds of newly-minted Get the Knack albums, was Bruce Gary’s actual drum kit (seen in pic below) smack dab in the middle! Not only was this the most one-of-a-kind display in the country, it’s right in the shadow of the owner’s record label, “should anything happen”! I chatted with Fieger for a few minutes, but came away amazed that this is what happens (or, at least has a chance of happening) when you visit or live in Hollywood!
That same week, I also ran into both Rodney Bingenheimer and Kim Fowley in front of the Roxy, just a few blocks further west from Tower on Sunset! In fact, The Ramones played their first California concert at the Roxy Theatre on August 11, 1976. The concert scenes for Rock’n’Roll High School were filmed at the Roxy in December ‘78.
Having, essentially, a Hit Parader Magazine come to life for me within a week was enough to have me make definite plans to move there as soon as possible…
….Which ended up being seven months later, in January 1980.
😱I Keep Running Into Cast Members!
Within my first year in L.A. (N. Hollywood, specifically, in the San Fernando Valley, just north of L.A.), I ran into two members of the Rock’n’Roll High School cast!
At some random location (store, record store; I can’t recall), I ran into the easily recognizable Fritz Hansel, actor Loren Lester (above), who was 18 when the film was shot. Born October 4, 1960, Lester is an American stage, screen and voice actor, best known as the voice of DC Comics superhero Dick Grayson/Robin and Nightwing in the numerous animated series and features.
Fencing with Little Leon of Mayberry
Sometime in 1980, also, I was tossing the frisbee with my looking-for-work-actor brother, (coincidentally, also named Clint), at N. Hollywood Park (above, in a recent photo), just a few blocks away from the small apartment complex where we lived (in separate apartments). About 50 yards away, I saw a young man jousting the air with his épée, apparently practicing fencing.
I approached, and as I did, he looked more and more familiar, with that telltale thinning hair! “It’s Mr. Eaglebauer!” I said to myself! Sure enough, as I got closer, I certainly recognized Clint Howard, who played Eaglebauer, the “fixer” of Vince Lombardi High: His “office” was in a smoky bathroom stall, and he’d gladly fix you up with a hall pass, test answers, or an excuse for an absence!
I introduced myself, and told him how much I enjoyed Rock’n’Roll High School and his character. He was very friendly, and happily offered me a mask and an épée, and we proceeded to click foils together, something that was altogether new to me!
Pry We Must: Common Knowledge? Maybe.
Some of the following may be well known, but a recent article in the retro pop culture magazine (to which I subscribe), Remind Magazine, drew my attention, so, let’s watch the fun, and see how much new-new they have!
“B-movie king (and Rock’n’Roll High School executive producer, the late Roger Corman, who died May 9, 2024 at 98), had an idea in the early ’70s: Revive the teen delinquent films that he and many others had so profitably produced in the ’50s and early ’60s. He first toyed with making a movie called Girls Gym, but then he had a realization:
“Since those classic delinquent movies often focused on the then-new and parentally-menacing genre of rock ‘n’ roll, the new film should focus on a new genre. As Corman told director Allan Arkush, ‘I’ve been thinking, since Grease and Saturday Night Fever are hits, why don’t you put music in it and we’ll call it Disco High?’
“Arkush, a passionate, lifelong rock fan who was not quite so interested in a movie about teenagers doing The Hustle, sold Corman on making it about a rock ‘n’ roll high school instead.
“Once the premise had been agreed upon,” Remind continues, “Arkush had to square away the second most important part: Select the band that would send the school’s teens into a delinquent frenzy.
“Arkush initially met with the far mellower Todd Rundgren, as well as Cheap Trick, Devo, and an early-career Van Halen, but felt that none were right.”
Speaking of backstage and Todd (who produced The Dolls’ debut album), here’s how I spent two 1973 weekends with The New York Dolls, and my post-show chat with Todd over drinks…5 years later:
Remind’s account continues: “Warner Bros. Records then suggested their recent signees, The Ramones, and Arkush thought it was a perfect match. The Ramones’ camp agreed. When he explained to the heads of the Ramones’ label, Sire Records [namely co-founder and president, Seymour Stein], that the band would help blow up the school at the end of the film, they exclaimed, ‘We’re in!’”
Per Remind: “Though Rock ‘n’ Roll High School draws most of its inspiration from B-movies, director Arkush did have one classic film on his mind: The 1956 music business comedy, The Girl Can’t Help It. The scene where Julie London materializes and sings “Cry Me A River” (written by Arthur Hamilton) to Tom Ewell (above) inspired the scene where the Ramones materialize in heroine Riff Randall’s (P.J. Soles) home and [Joey] serenades her with “I Want You Around” [look for the previously-mentioned Ramones standee…Riff has one in her bedroom!]:
Director, Joe Dante (Gremlins, The ‘Burbs, Innerspace), was part of Roger Corman’s stable of directors, generally creating such cheapie exploitation films like the 1978 Jaws knock-off, Piranha. Dante also helped come up with the basic concept behind Rock’n’Roll High School.
Remind: “While director Allan Arkush did all the work of shaping the movie’s creative direction and directing the majority of scenes, on the final day of filming, he fell ill. With the movie on a shoe-string budget, they couldn’t afford a day of cancelled shooting, so Dante, ever the Corman team player, stepped in to direct the gym class musical number, where P.J. Soles’ Riff Randall sings her rendition of ‘Rock‘n’Roll High School’”:
Remind: “One of the first things you hear in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (besides the sound of a nerd being tormented by bullies) is the dulcet voice of Paul McCartney. How did a movie famous for its low budget get an ex-Beatle on its soundtrack?
“The number, ‘Did We Meet Somewhere Before?’ had actually been written by McCartney as the theme for Warren Beatty‘s 1978 Heaven Can Wait. According to film co-writer Joseph McBride, when Beatty eventually passed on it [that alone is surprising!], Rock ‘n’ Roll High School was able to secure the rights for a shocking $500, provided that they didn’t include it on the official soundtrack album.
“Urban myth states that McCartney did this in exchange for not having his name used in the film, but it very clearly appears in the credits — which means that the filmmakers simply happened on a pretty great bargain (or that Macca cut them a deal because he’s a secret Ramones fan)! The song has never been released on a McCartney or Wings official album”:
Our favorite new “mid-’80s born millennial,”
, did us a solid and cited our R’n’R High School celebration, here, in his May 2025 revelation of discovering our favorite band while in college! Give it a read, and please consider subscribing!👇
ah, what a time it was to be young and in love with music!
I love reading your stories, and I echo the comments from your other readers: what a time to be where you were, and also, if I may add, what a way to seize the day! I think I once said, when describing your experiences, that you didn't just exist through those golden years, but you were living and breathing music everywehere you went. What's more, it's that shrewdness, that astuteness (which is evident from your line of thinking at the time) that sets you apart, in my view. I like the fact you're very frank when, for example, you admit (and I'm talking more generally here) that certain encounters or events happened by mere chance or coincidence. While I don't believe anything happens ONLY by coincidence, you make it clear that sometimes certain things took you by surprise. Fair enough. What I find particularly interesting is how you recount, for example, that you knew a certain label was located X miles away, and therefore there was a reasonable chance that Mr So and So would do XYZ, or that this other thing woud probably happen in the vicinity. It's not just the knowledge, for which we all praise you: it's the systematic and intelligent use of the information available that blows my mind every single time. It's this holistically integrated pool of music industry knowledge, and the decisions you were able to make at the speed of light using that information, that I find absolutely fascinating. I want to be like you when I grow up!