Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N’ Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr By Robert Hofler
I knew very little about manager/producer Allan Carr other than he was the man who optioned the film rights to the stage musical Grease (1978) and managed to tweak, rework it, and bring it to the big screen, in essence creating the highest grossing musical film for decades, before being toppled from that top spot in 2012 by Les Misérables.
I also knew Allan Carr was the producer behind the Village People’s movie musical, Can’t Stop the Music, a film, originally entitled Discoland…Where the Music Never Ends, that did not do well at the box-office. When it cames to disco, the Village People were amongst the top performers and biggest stars of that musical genre, and based on that, and an article he read saying how popular disco was, and claiming it had longevity, he attempted to make Discoland, only to find in the middle of doing so, the disco craze crashed and died.
I knew very little about Allan Carr, which makes sense, as that would be a great excuse to pick up a book on him and read it now, wouldn’t it? That really was not my main motivation in reading Party Animals by Robert Hofler, merely a bonus. Based on the cover of the book featuring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in Grease gear, and based on my love for that movie, I cracked its spine, not realizing it was a biography of Allan Carr, although that ignorance was quickly tossed aside.
Party Animals was a fascinating read in that at times I found it quite interesting, and at other times it bored the hell out of me. There was a lot about Allan Carr I did not know that was quite interesting to discover, and a lot I found uninspired. I also walked away from this biography feeling sorry for Allan Carr, and the life he lived, although I am sure he did not feel that way, or at least not all the time. Carr had a lifetime of health issues, based on his weight problem, and the extremes he took to deal with them, many of which landed him in hospitals with infections. Carr was known for wearing caftans and having a large collection of them. He was also known for his parties, many of them at one of his Beverly Hills home formerly owned by Ingrid Bergman. Carr started throwing these lavish parties at a time when he was merely a manager, representing the likes of Ann-Margret, along with Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, Rosalind Russel, Dyan Cannon, and Marlo Thomas. These parties became legendary and helped put him on the map; later, when he got into film production and had some success there, he was able to afford these lavish parties, spending even more on entertaining.
Where Party Animals was interesting was when it revealed aspects of his career, I had no idea about. I am a diehard The Who fan – they were my favourite band as a teenager – yet I did not know that producer Robert Stigwood hired Carr to work as a marketing and promotion consultant selling the big-screen version of The Who’s rock opera, Tommy, starring the band’s lead singer Roger Daltrey. It is an intriguing film, and not an easy sell, but Carr did so, even throwing a lavish and now legendary party, in the New York subway, after the films New York premiere. Stigwood also used his promotional services to promote 1977’s Saturday Night Fever, a ground-breaking musical, considered a classic today.
Carr was also called upon by Universal Studios to help figure out how to promote 1978’s The Deer Hunter, starring Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken. Test screenings of the film were not going well, and Universal were sure they had a dud on their hands. After viewing the film and realizing how important it was, Carr felt it was Academy Award material, and came up with the release pattern that allowed it to be nominated that year, opening it small in large markets initially, and in wider release later on, a pattern film studios still use to this day for various films. Carr was right, seeing what others did not, and The Deer Hunter did in fact win the Best Picture Academy Award in 1978. Except for true, diehard film buffs, his contribution to that film’s success is generally unknown. According to Party Animals, even after his fall for grace in 1989, many studios and film producers still called upon him seeking advice for the release and promotion of many films, although he does not name any of them.
I did not know Carr was behind bringing La Cage aux Folles to Broadway; a surprise hit in the 1980’s based on its gay theme; the production ran for years, before the AIDs crisis and the belief it was a gay-based disease, forced them to close the initial run, as ticket sales started to decline. For those born after the 1980’s, it may be hard to believe how much of a stigma it was to be gay, or openly gay, and to be so during the AIDs epidemic. A show like TV’s Will & Grace would be unthinkable back then. The 1980’s and ‘90s were the decades where the battle for gay rights and equal rights was hard fought for. As such, the fact Carr was living as a openly gay man in Hollywood at that time, was a sign of his courage and strength of conviction to be whom he was and not hide that fact.
This is where I found myself feeling sorry for Allan Carr; not because he was gay, please do not get that wrong, but because as Robert Hofler presents him in Party Animals, Carr was never someone who probably felt comfortable with himself and his accomplishments. You get the sense he wanted more, to be seen as someone more (despite his moments of great success), and never really relaxed into himself. Seeing how he was courageous to be openly gay back in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, and that was brilliant and brave, the overall impression of him is of someone who just never found contentment.
Carr’s Hollywood downfall was the March 29, 1989, 61st Academy Awards, that he was asked to produce. For someone who enjoyed throwing lavish parities, and loved everything Hollywood, old and new, this was a dream job. The Oscars had been on a ratings decline, so Carr was asked to step in and produce a show that would change all that. Unfortunately, Carr’s vision proved fatal for his career.
I watched the 1989 Oscars, and found the opening number, featuring the unauthorized use of Walt Disney’s version of Snow White, singing and dancing with a young Rob Lowe to a retooled version (lyrically) of Tina Turner and Ike Turner’s Proud Mary, a little too long and a little too gaudy, but nothing I did not expect from the Academy Awards. This number and more, including an over-long musical number featuring young Hollywood, has placed the 61st Academy Award broadcast as the worst ever. Film director Blake Edwards got numerous celebrities, including Paul Newman to sign a letter to the Academy attacking the broadcast, Disney filed a lawsuit, and a month after the presentation, Lucille Ball, who along with Bob Hope introduced that Young Hollywood number, passed away, and morbidly, people in Hollywood said her involvement with that broadcast, and how bad it was, was responsible for her death.
Due to the beauty of YouTube, I went back and rewatched both musical numbers, and they were bad, and far too long, but, really, is that not what you often get with award shows? I have seen interviews with Rob Lowe where he addresses the broadcast, and to tell you the truth, even though he must live with being a big part of it, and the show’s failure, you cannot fault his deciding to participate in the production. As a young member of Hollywood, he was asked to perform on the industries biggest night, seen by hundreds of millions, if not billions, he was asked by the producer of Grease, the highest grossing musical of all time at that time, and he would be under the guidance of three-time Academy Award-winning music producer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch, so there is no faulting him in thinking he was in good hands. Lowe has had to live with this for a long time, but I would say, based on the evidence, even though it failed miserably, he took a calculated risk where the odds appeared to be in his favour – but were not!
While the 61st Academy Award show hurt his stance in Hollywood, and generally ended his prolific career, it should be noted, Carr also introduced a few Academy Award things that are still embraced today, such as the focus on fashion that proceeds every show, and the phrase, “The Oscar goes to…”
Party Animals gives us a brief look at the flash and decadence of Hollywood, by a man who not only embraced that industry, but helped bring the world of rock and roll into it. Carr had his great successes, and his great failures, and all of this does not matter, as the one thing you will walk away with is a sense that despite it all, his battle with weight, and personal image, were the biggest demons he faced in life, and the demons he could not overcome. It is too bad he never found a way to settle in and truly love himself; who knows, maybe he could have laughed off his Oscar failure, and moved on, creating that one significant and important film, he longed to make, but during his days, was too distracted and image-conscious to find and produce. ♥