Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Clint at the RFK Tennis tournament - Forest Hills, New York City, August 27th 1977.


Clint at the RFK Tennis tournament - Forest Hills, New York City, August 27th 1977
Firstly, a bit of background information and some great rare photos. So, what were the RFK tournaments? The annual Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Tennis Tournament began at the West Side Tennis Club and carried on throughout the ’70s. It was a celebrity pro-am tournament that saw stars paired with professional male and female players in several tennis matches. Plenty of big Hollywood celebs made appearances at the event over the years. The purpose of the tournament was to raise money for RFK charity programs through entry costs. Both players and observers were charged, with celebrity entry costing $2,500 (over $10,000 by today’s standard) and observer entry costing anywhere between $5 and $100 (up to $480 by today’s standard). 
Below: The Proham for the 1977 event
As could be expected, a considerable number of Kennedy family members opened their schedules every year to attend the memorial for their late kin. Brothers and sisters of Robert, as well as nieces and nephews, gathered in the stands and laced up their tennis shoes to watch and to play as both celebrities and professionals rallied back and forth on the court.
Some notable members of the Kennedy clan that attended the event included Ethel, Ted, and Eunice Kennedy. Often spotted together while watching the tennis matches were John F. Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, and Jackie Kennedy.

The stars were ready to grab their rackets
Considering it was a celebrity event; it’s no surprise that some of the biggest stars of the time made their appearances at the RFK Tennis Tournaments. Every year, viewers could spot a variety of actors, singers, models, and other entertainers in the stands and on the courts. Some names include Chevy Chase, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Clint Eastwood, Cheryl Tiegs, and many more.

Below: While the tennis tournament was for a good cause, many celebrities took the opportunity to flaunt their personal “tennis club” style, wearing preppy attire they would not be seen in otherwise. Some even decided to show off what they had going on underneath their clothes
Put a group of celebrities in a room together and they’re bound to socialize. Singers were seen shaking hands with politicians while athletes shared jokes with actors. It was a unique experience that put a lot of America’s most famous names in direct contact with one another, making for some pretty incredible photographs.

So, as this event took place almost exactly 48 years ago this month, I thought I would post a nice full set of 18 photos from this event. *The 18 negatives here are from my own personal collection; I have left the original watermarks on them from when I originally obtained the negatives. I know this is a slight distraction and takes away some of their charm, but unfortunately there are still people out there who continue to steal and use images simply in order to profit from them. I really don’t mind sharing However, I didn’t buy these so that other may earn money and profit from them. That just isn’t right. Many Thanks. 


















Novelty Stamps: Fake but First Class


Novelty Stamps: Fake but First Class
To be completely honest, I have a fair amount of these ‘quirky collectables’, totally worthless of course, but nevertheless often irresistible. I will have to get some other examples scanned and put here on the same page. 
I thought I’d kick off with this latest one I acquired a few weeks back, which feature Clint as Coogan as well as the Triumph TR6 motorbike. But of course, nothing is quite what it seems, in fact the bike featured on the stamp has a whole different story. Our resident Triumph expert Davy Triumph explained, ‘The image on the stamp is undoubtedly a TR6 but this is a "Pre Unit" construction which dates to around 1961/2. These were phased out early 60s in favour of the Unit construction engines. Coogan’s Bluff features Don Stroud riding a 1968 500cc Triumph Daytona T100, while Eastwood rides a 1968 Triumph Trophy TR6 650cc’
Clint and Don comparing CC
Below: The Coogan's Bluff novelty stamp

Lots more to come…

Here we A Go-Go again!

Here we A Go-Go again!
I have to thank our friend Kevin Walsh for coming up again with another variant of the For A Few Dollars More A-Go-Go Theme. This one has popped up in various guises, but I don’t think I have seen this one before which is nice and vivid. Performed by the Man Chau Po Orchestra, this Stereo 7” EP (MEP. 5) was released in Hong Kong in 1966. The more familiarly seen version is the Singapore release (REP 511) of the same year. 
As well as the Eastwood related content (For A Few Dollars More, Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu' and Titoli), the record also included A-Go-Go from River Kwai – you just have to love it. 
Below: Probably the more familiar design of the same release, this version came from Singapore

Rare UK Rowdy Single finally comes home!


Rare UK Rowdy Single finally comes home!
It was nice to finally put this to bed last month. It's not that they haven't come along before, but often due to the thin paper sleeve, copies of Clint's UK 7” single release Rowdy / Cowboy Wedding Song (1962) often show up badly beaten, torn, crushed up and stained - and still at an incredibly expensive price - a price I wouldn’t' of minded paying IF the quality was there... So a few have come along, and generally I’d decided to let go – opting instead to wait for the next Bus to come along. 
Thankfully all the stars were aligned last month when this beautiful example came my way. haggled a bit on the price, and finally settled on a mutually acceptable figure. 
It's so ironic, because I have rarer demo pressings of the single - but still needed the elusive UK picture sleeve release. I still believe the UK release was the only one to come in a picture sleeve. 
It’s been a long time coming, but proof enough that everything eventually comes to those who wait.

Below: The original flyer from Cameo Parkway Records, February 19th, 1963

Clint on the set of Space Cowboys

Clint on the set of Space Cowboys

I spotted this rare still of Clint on the web some months ago - I hadn't seen it before so thought it was worth saving. I like the name sticker on the floor, just to avoid any confusion as to where Clint is seated.

Thursday, 7 August 2025

Actress Loni Anderson dies aged 79


Actress Loni Anderson dies aged 79. 
Whist Loni Anderson wasn’t ‘directly’ linked with Clint, she was nevertheless part of that 1984 crowd that came out of that whole City Heat period. Anderson, who died after a long illness, gained her greatest recognition on screen in the American sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, playing Jennifer Marlowe, the intelligent, cool and collected receptionist at a flagging Ohio radio station.
The 1983 film Stroker Ace, starred Burt Reynolds as an arrogant racing driver alongside Loni Anderson. The action comedy was deemed a flop by the public and critics, leading Reynolds to say that it was responsible for his career nosediving. 
The off-screen romance between Anderson and Reynolds led in 1988 to their marriage, his second, her third. The ceremony, in a purpose-built chapel at Reynolds’s Florida ranch, was top-secret, although pictures were released of Anderson wearing a canary-yellow, seven-carat diamond ring. “I feel like Cinderella,” she said. “I married Prince Charming.”
But an acrimonious divorce followed six years later, with Reynolds saying: “She bought everything in triplicate, from everyday dresses to jewellery, to China and linens.” He added that he gave her a platinum American Express card with a $45,000 credit limit that she “maxed out in half an hour”. Both claimed infidelity by the other.
RIP

Sunday, 3 August 2025

Sssss*** teams up with High Plains Drifter

 Sssss*** teams up with High Plains Drifter

Yes, overall, the year of 1973 was a pretty ok year for Universal, Clint’s studio offering that year featured High Plains Drifter. However, there were also some really disappointing offerings from the studio, no more so than Sssssss (which could have stood for Shit) but instead represented the Ssssss of snake in this quite awful Horror movie starring Strother Martin, Dirk Benedict, and Heather Menzies. 

Probably due to disappointing box office, Sssssss also ended up paired with none other than Clint’s High Plains Drifter! Yes, I’ve seen High Plains Drifter doubled up with some titles in the past, but this piece of garbage? I’m struggling to try and find any sort of connection – but I’ll be damned if I can?

Anyway, proof (if it were ever needed) below – courtesy (I think) of our friend Davy Triumph   

Saturday, 2 August 2025

Photo Opportunity #64 Clint with Elliott Kastner

Photo Opportunity #64 Clint with Elliott Kastner

July has been a pretty quiet month, apologies to all, but I’m still up the hospital at least 3 times a week, and a minimum of 4 hours a time, - which is both tiring and draining. Thank you for all your continued kind wishes and understanding.

For this month’s Photo Opportunity, I’ve pulled out this cracking shot of Where Eagles Dare producer Elliott Kastner on the MGM cable car set with Clint in between shooting.

Wednesday, 2 July 2025

Photo Opportunity #63 Draw! Bronco Billy


Photo Opportunity #63 Draw! Bronco Billy
With all that’s been happening of late, we sometimes need to remind ourselves to smile. And with that, our (slightly late) Photo Opportunity for July will hopefully bring a summery grin. Actually, this photo of Clint as Bronco Billy McCoy is rather a rarely seem shot. Obviously taken for publicity – it captures Clint playing around for the camera. 

I often think Bronco Billy (1980) is hugely overlooked as a movie. Personally, I think it’s a charming piece of cinema which features a whole ensemble of Clint’s regular cast and crew – alongside Clint were Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Scatman Crothers, Sam Bottoms, Bill McKinney, Dan Vadis and Woodrow Parfrey – all of whom were on excellent form. 

Eastwood received Dennis Hackin and Neal Dobrofsky's script and decided to join the film with Sondra Locke. The film was shot in two months in the Boise, Idaho area in the fall of 1979. Additional filming took place in eastern Oregon and New York. Filmed on a low budget of $5 million, it finished two to four weeks ahead of schedule. It’s provided a nice, easy transition into the new decade. 

Eastwood has cited Bronco Billy as being one of the most affable shoots of his career, and the late biographer Richard Schickel has argued that the character of Bronco Billy is his most self-referential work. The film was a modest commercial hit, but was appreciated by critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times believed the film was "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while," praising Eastwood's directing and the way he intricately juxtaposes the old West and the new.

Although the film grossed four to five times its cost (some $25 million) during its United States theatrical release, Eastwood considered it insufficient. In a French interview, Eastwood spoke about the film's financial reception, "It was an old-fashioned theme, probably too old fashioned since the film didn't do as well as we hoped. But if, as a film director, I ever wanted to say something, you'll find it in Bronco Billy."

Friday, 27 June 2025

The Great Lalo Schifrin dies at 93


The Great Lalo Schifrin dies at 93
I was informed yesterday of this sad news. I have used the Variety piece for the main bulk of this post. Although I was privileged to help out and contribute to a couple of Aleph’s Dirty Harry releases, and had the great honour of Interviewing Mr Schifrin, Lalo always supported us and admired our work here on the Archive. And for that we will always be grateful. 

Lalo Schifrin, Prolific Film Composer Who Wrote ‘Mission: Impossible’ Theme, Dies at 93
Lalo Schifrin, the Grammy-winning composer of “Mission: Impossible” and film scores including “Cool Hand Luke,” “Dirty Harry” and “Bullitt,” died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 93.
The Argentine musician was among the first to apply a broad range of musical ideas to film and TV scores, from jazz and rock to more modern and complex techniques of orchestral writing. His heyday was the 1960s and ’70s, when he produced several film and TV scores that are now regarded as classics.
In November 2018, Schifrin became only the third composer in the history of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences to receive an honorary Oscar. Clint Eastwood, for whom Schifrin composed eight scores, made the presentation “in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring.”
Actress Kathy Bates said at the event: “His work cannot be easily labeled. Is what he creates jazz? Is it classical, contemporary, popular? The answer is yes, it is all of those things. Lalo is a true Renaissance man: a performer at the piano, a painter with notes, a conductor and composer who has scored some of the most memorable films of the past half-century.”
Also that evening, Schifrin said “composing for movies has been a lifetime of joy and creativity. Receiving this honorary Oscar is the culmination of a dream. It is a mission accomplished,” he said to audience cheers at the Dolby Theatre.
Schifrin was nominated six times for Oscars including score nods for “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “The Fox” (1968) “Voyage of the Damned” (1976) “The Amityville Horror” (1979) and “The Sting II” (1983), plus a best-song nomination for “The Competition” (1980), but he was especially well-known for his TV themes.

The “Mission: Impossible” theme earned him two of his five Grammy Awards and three of his four Emmy nominations, and brought him lasting fame, not only for the 1960s TV series but for its use throughout the eight Tom Cruise “Mission” films that began in 1996.
Asked about that theme, written for Bruce Geller’s widely praised 1966-73 spy series starring Peter Graves, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, Schifrin once said “I wanted a little humor, lightness, a theme that wouldn’t take itself too seriously,” although he chose an unusual time signature because “there is something unpredictable about 5/4.”
The first of two “Mission: Impossible” soundtrack albums became a best-seller in 1968, and the theme reached no. 41 on the Billboard pop charts. A track from the second “Mission” album, “Danube Incident,” has often been sampled in hip-hop and trip-hop songs (including “Sour Times” by Portishead and “Prowl” by Heltah Skeltah).

The composer went on to pen a jazz waltz for Geller’s private-eye series “Mannix,” employ a Moog synthesizer for an ambulance-like wail for “Medical Center,” and write such other TV themes as “Starsky & Hutch,” “Most Wanted” and “Petrocelli.” He even made a cameo appearance in the jazz club of “T.H.E. Cat,” another 1960s series he scored that featured plenty of Latin jazz.
Schifrin was born June 21, 1932 in Buenos Aires, son of the concertmaster of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic. He studied piano and, while attending the city’s Colegio Nacional University during the 1940s, paid to smuggle American jazz records into the country; they had been forbidden by Juan Peron’s authoritarian regime.
He studied composition with Juan Carlos Paz and, while at the Paris Conservatory beginning in 1952, with French composer Olivier Messiaen. His daytime classical studies and nighttime performances in Paris jazz clubs helped to solidify his theory that the walls between classical and jazz were artificial and should be torn down.
Returning to Buenos Aires in 1956, he formed his own big band. A chance meeting with jazz great Dizzy Gillespie in Argentina led to Schifrin moving to the U.S. in 1958, becoming Gillespie’s pianist and arranger from 1960 to 1962. Schifrin wrote two large-scale jazz works for him, the Grammy-nominated “Gillespiana” in 1960 and “The New Continent” in 1963. “I’ve had many teachers, but only one master: Dizzy Gillespie,” the composer said.

He signed with Verve Records in 1962 as an artist and arranger, winning his first Grammy for “The Cat,” for organist Jimmy Smith, in 1965 (while also arranging for fellow jazzmen Stan Getz, Cal Tjader, Bob Brookmeyer and others). His second Grammy was for composing “Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts,” a 1965 work for flutist Paul Horn that won praise from jazz critics and religious leaders alike. His Grammy-nominated “Marquis de Sade” LP, which placed jazz soloists in baroque and classical contexts, became a cult favorite.
Schifrin’s reputation as an innovative jazz composer led to an invitation to write for TV and films. Moving to Hollywood in 1963, he wrote music for “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” “Kraft Suspense Theatre,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and other series, along with the first made-for-TV movie, “See How They Run” in 1964.
He had written a film score in Argentina (“El Jefe,” 1958) but credited the 1964 thriller “Les Félins” by director René Clément, which he scored in Paris, as his earliest success in film. “If you compare my career to a house, ‘Les Félins’ would be its foundation,” he once said.
Subsequent films “The Cincinnati Kid,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “Bullitt” showcased his ability to incorporate jazz and blues into more traditional orchestral contexts. In 1968, “Coogan’s Bluff” began a series of films with director Don Siegel that included “The Beguiled,” “Dirty Harry” and “Charley Varrick.” He also scored three of the “Dirty Harry” sequels including “Magnum Force,” “Sudden Impact” and “The Dead Pool.”
Schifrin researched Asian music to score Bruce Lee’s 1973 martial-arts classic “Enter the Dragon,” which in turn inspired director Brett Ratner, 25 years later, to hire the composer for his trio of “Rush Hour” action comedies. Among his other ’70s films, he employed futuristic choral passages for George Lucas’ “THX 1138,” Renaissance sounds for “The Four Musketeers,” and provided a fun carnival ambiance for “Rollercoaster.” He scored Sam Peckinpah’s last film, “The Osterman Weekend” (1983) and reached back to his Argentinian roots for Carlos Saura’s “Tango” (1998).
Schifrin wrote the music for more than 40 TV-movies and miniseries including the controversial 1966 “Doomsday Flight,” about a madman who hides a bomb aboard a commercial airliner; and the 1980s and ’90s multi-parters “Princess Daisy,” “A.D.,” “Out on a Limb,” “A Woman Named Jackie” and “Don Quixote.” Other TV series for which he wrote themes included “Blue Light,” “The Young Lawyers,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Bronk” and “Glitter.”

He also scored several documentaries including the “The Hellstrom Chronicle” and such TV docs as “The Making of the President 1964” and “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” the latter of which he turned into a dramatic cantata that was performed at the Hollywood Bowl in 1967.
Schifrin’s concert works included “Cantos Aztecas (Songs of the Aztecs)”; two piano concertos, two guitar concertos, a violin concerto and numerous other symphonic and chamber works.  He wrote several medleys for the Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras) in the 1990s and early 2000s. And in 1993, he launched his “Jazz Meets the Symphony” series of recordings for orchestral ensemble and top jazz soloists, which produced seven albums and earned four more of his 19 Grammy nominations.
During the late 1980s and 1990s he also served as music director of the Paris Philharmonic and the Glendale (Calif.) Symphony. In 1998, he started his own record label, Aleph, which produced several acclaimed jazz and orchestral albums including the Latin Grammy-nominated “Latin Jazz Suite” and “Letters From Argentina.” He won a 2010 Latin Grammy for his classical composition “Pampas.”
Schifrin’s last major work was a collaboration with fellow Argentinian composer Rod Schejtman: “Long Live Freedom,” a 35-minute symphony dedicated to their country that debuted April 5 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
Above: Lalo receives his Oscar from Clint on November 18th, 2018  
I'd sent Lalo an email the following morning congratulating him, and like the true gentleman he was, he always replied -
Dear Darren,
It was an incredible honour for me to receive the Oscar, but even more touching to see your words of congratulations.
Happy Holidays,
Lalo

Schifrin authored an autobiography, “Mission Impossible: My Life in Music,” in 2008. As he wrote then: “In music, the choices are infinite. The possibilities of sound combinations with the acoustic instruments of a symphony orchestra, a jazz band or a chamber ensemble have not yet been exhausted. What has been done in the field of electronic music so far has not even scratched the surface of a vast continent to be explored.”
Survivors in addition to his wife Donna include three children (William Schifrin and wife Lissa, Frances Schifrin and husband John Newcombe, Ryan Schifrin and wife Theresa) and four grandchildren.

RIP and God Bless Maestro - our love and deepest thoughts to Donna, Ryan, Theresa and all of the family.