Carr (R) with Steve Rubell & Olivia Newton-John at the opening of Grease
May 27, 1937– I proudly indulge in camp when ever possible & I get dizzy for a really good bad film: Valley Of The Dolls (1967), Roadhouse (1989), Terror In Tiny Town (1938) are all on my list of movies so ridiculous that they transcend crummy to become truly iconic cinema experiences. Showgirls (1995) is my #1 Good-Bad Movie, but Can’t Stop The Music is right behind it. The 1980 musical epic was the only time The Village People starred in a film, proving that it takes a village. Producer Allan Carr cast it with a lot of ex-boyfriends, but on the set they got out of hand & Carr issued an edict:
“Anyone caught having sex on the set will be fired!”
Nothing says 1970s hedonism like an Allan Carr production. But then there was nothing else like the very ostentatious, obese, ornate caftan-wearing Carr.
He built a fortune by betting on show biz. While still in college, he invested $750 in a Broadway production of The Ziegfeld Follies, starring Tallulah Bankhead. The payoff was handsome & Carr continued to reinvest in hit after hit, making tons of dough. He also produced events & premiers, including an infamous formal-dress party hosted by Truman Capote at LA County Jail in 1963.
Allan Carr Enterprises, formed in 1966, managed the careers of: Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, Rosalind Russell, Dyan Cannon, Nancy Walker, Marvin Hamlisch, Joan Rivers, Peggy Lee, Mama Cass Elliot, Paul Anka, Frankie Valli, George Maharis, & Herb Alpert. He personally looked after Ann-Margret, producing a string of whose TV specials for the star in the 1960s & 1970s & putting her in the film version of Tommy (1975), one of her best roles & an Oscar nomination. Carr produced & promoted the films: Grease (1978) Grease 2 (1982) Where The Boys Are ’84, Tommy (1975), & the Broadway production of La Cage Aux Folles.
Carr kept busy hosting exclusive extravagant events with guest lists that included most show biz legends & those that loved them. The invitations to the gatherings at his opulent mansion, with 9 bars, a disco, & plenty of private rooms where guests could indulge in cocaine & sex, were highly coveted even in the homophobic Hollywood of the 1970s.
He titled his parties like films: the Roman Polanski Rolodex Party, the Rudolph Nureyev Mattress Party, the Mick Jagger Cycle Sluts Party, the Truman Capote Jailhouse Party. He invited rock stars & Hollywood royalty. At a Carr fete you might rub-up against Elton John, Groucho Marx, or the pool boy. To promote the opening of Tommy, Carr held the opening-night party in the NYC subway.
Carr’s fall was as dramatic as his rise. He was banned from the Academy Awards after producing what is fondly remembered as the worst Oscar broadcast of all time, with a tone deaf Rob Lowe & Snow White singing Proud Mary. Gregory Peck, Julie Andrews & Paul Newman signed a petition forever disinviting Carr from future Oscars. Disney sued the Oscars for copyright infringement of their Snow White character. The Breakout Superstars Of Tomorrow segment in the program’s last half featured 12 minutes of young actors like Christian Slater & Patrick Dempsey writhing at the foot a giant Oscar statue as if it were the Golden Calf. It took a lot of guts & a lot of cocaine to come up with a show that demented.
Soon after, the show biz establishment shunned the sizzling scandals, sex & sordid lifestyle of the flamboyantly gay Allan Carr. Grease may have been the word, but nothing opened-up Carr like pretty parties, pretty caftans, pretty drugs & pretty boys. After appearing in Carr’s Can’t Stop The Music, Bruce Jenner was left gender-confused. We know how that turned out.
In 1999, Carr left this party for good, gone from that damn Cancer. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean by Ann-Margret in front of his former Diamond Head Estate on Oahu.
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