NOISE JUNKIES - The Idolmaker

I was a child of the eighties during the rise of cable television. Back then, a movie didn't have to be a giant box office smash to land in heavy rotation. As such, we were afforded the opportunity to discover all sorts of wonderful films that we probably wouldn't have had the chance to otherwise. I've made no bones about my love of underdog media. Those underloved albums were movies that had so much to offer, yet were somehow left behind by the culture at large.

Tonight, I want to tell you about one such underdog, a rock and roll movie that became a fast favorite in the HP household, but I'll bet you've probably never heard of it. Tonight, I want to introduce you to The Idol Maker. Heello listeners to another episode of Noise Junkies. I'm HP. This episode, I'll be discussing nineteen eighties The Idol Maker, directed by Taylor Hackford.

The name Taylor Hackford might be familiar to you. He directed an Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil's Advocate, Not to mention the Ray Charles bilepic Ray which NAB starred Jamie Fox, the best actor Oscar back in two thousand and four. Incidentally, you might also know Hackford as mister Helen Mirren. They've been married since nineteen ninety seven. Anyway, The Idolmaker was Hackford's first feature as a director.

The Idolmaker tells the story of Vinnie Vacari, a struggling songwriter in late fifties New York, hustling for his big break in the music business, believing the only thing holding him back is his look. He instead finds his calling as a talent manager, molding others into his ideal of the perfect teen idol. However, his zeal for success comes at a tremendous cost, both to Vinnie and to those around him. Written by Ed de Lorenzo with a rewrite by Hackford, it was based on the real life tale of Bob Marcucci, the man who discovered Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Vinnie was portrayed by Ray Sharky.

If ever, there was a perfect match of character and actor, this was it. Hackford needed a tough Italian American from the streets of New York, and he found that in Sharky. Ray was like Vinnie, a tough guy from humble beginnings. Looking for his big acting break, that role that would make him a star. He'd already had some small success, appearing in small roles on shows like Kojak, Barney Miller, and the Streets of San Francisco, but big time success had eluded him.

He knew the Idol Maker was his shot at success, and his performance is electric. Ray is Vinnie Vacari. To pull this off, you need to believe in Vinnie's talent, his charm, his energy, his confidence. Even when Vinnie's hubris takes him down a very dark and cruel path, you can't help but root for him despite his flaws, and Sharki delivers big time. A good example of this is the scene where Vinnie goes to visit the Italian grandmother of a potential new discovery.

He needs to try and convince this protective Nona to let her grandson live and work with him, but she's very wary of his pitch. She doesn't speak a word of English, so Vinnie chats in Italian with her and uses his charm to convince her. The entire scene is spoken in Italian with no English subtitles at all. Ray didn't need them. The viewer can tell exactly what Vinnie is saying, just through his performance.

Ray himself was fluent in Italian. As Hackford tells it, growing up a half Irish, half Italian kid in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood, Ray had to be more Italian than the other kids to survive, and for his efforts, Sharky was awarded the Golden Globe in nineteen eighty one for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical. Vinnie first sees the necessary raw talent in a small time sax player named Tommy de LaRusso, which Vinnie shortens to Tommy Dee. Tommy was played by Paul Land, who embodies Tommy's exuberance throughout his ascent into fame, temptation, and amorality. Land would only act in a couple more movies, including nineteen eighty three's t and a Flick Spring Break, before retiring from acting.

He would eventually run his own successful construction business in New Jersey before his untimely death at age fifty one. Vinnie's best and musical partner, Gino Pilato, is played by none other than Joe Pantaliano. Pantoliano later made his name in such movies as Risky Business, The Goonies, La Bamba, and of course The Matrix. Here, Pantoliano is the perfect foil for Vinnie. As sensitive and loyal as Vinnie is controlling and volcanic.

One of Vinnie's targets in bolstering his talent roster is winning over the editor of the fictional teen scene magazine, Brenda Roberts here, played by Titan of Stage and Screen, Tova Feldschow. She's been in tons of TV like Law and Order and The Walking Dead, but she's also made memorable appearances in the movie's Happy Accidents, Kissing Jessica Stein and Brewster's Millions. Her Brenda Roberts is tough, authentic, no nonsense, eventually charmed by Vinni and falling for him despite her reservations, Vinnie finds that he needs to expand his roster beyond the tempestuous Tommy Dee and settles on a sixteen year old bus boy named Guido from his brother's restaurant. Guido, eventually re christened Chesiret, is played by Peter Gallagher.

You've seen him in everything from The Hudsucker Proxy to American Beauty to Grey's Anatomy, and of course, his iconic role as Sandy Cohen in The OC. A classically trained singer and dancer, Gallagher had perhaps the toughest challenge to portray Guido as a clumsy, shy teen who Vinnie imbues with his talent through harsh and often cruel measures. Although Paul Land had his singing voice overdubbed by professional singer Jesse Frederick, all of Chesiret's singing is performed by Gallagher himself, and it's a credit to Gallagher's performance that you believe his transformation every step of the way. It makes Chesiret's moments of triumph that much more exhilarating to witness. Check out However, Dark the Night one of Chesiret's showstoppers from the movie.

We Love Boning Pride. You can't remember the pain and sorrow. You have no pass. There's no to morrow. I will dress today.

With loves cats. I see pain of so surprise. You can't stop some from her hair, and it'll melt the eyes away. So don't you let me. See your corner?

I call, let you let me see your crow. It will be here that, however good. They will come moaning loud fun fact about Jesse Frederick. He co wrote and performed the themes to several eighties sitcoms, including Full House, Step by Step in Family Matters. The Idol Maker is essentially a rock musical, and as such lives and dies by its music.

Originally, legendary Wall of Sound producer Phil Spector was slated to produce the music, but Hackford was forced to part ways with the notoriously eccentric Specter. Apparently, Specter had grown too protective of the material he'd written, and the songs were progressing as they got closer to the start of production. Enter Jeff Barry. Barry had co written such iconic pop songs as do Wa, Diddy, Be My Baby, Leader of the Pack, and Sugar Sugar. He'd also produced A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, and I'm a Believer for the Monkeys, So Jeff Barry's bonafides were pretty damn song.

I've heard criticism over the years that his Idol Maker songs weren't time period authentic, but to me, they blend an authentic pop rock feel with the then modern production techniques of the early nineteen eighties. You need songs that perform on both text and subtext levels and bottom line. The songs are really really catchy and really really fucking good. Check out Here is My Love, the song that puts Tommy de on the map. It doesn't just work gangbusters in context of the movie.

It feels like a hit to me. You got that head tone and well just hopping up bout it makes me want you again. But I am watching my stuff. I know my repute. So you tell me when you got everything every wont you got everything ever need.

Into your win my love? Now? Damn the beat. Down up in in, play in. Boots, so round, hop in, stoping out.

Staved its time, ray down, Here is my Love, Here is my Love? Here is My Love? Who Yeah. Not only does the music have to work in the context of the movie, but the musical performances have to visually deliver, and here Hackford and his DP Adam Hollander do amazing work. Whether the setting is a junior high school gym full of hormone craze teeny boppers or a live theater bristling with energy intension, the musical scenes are always dynamic, and you the viewer, almost feel like Vinnie watching as his molded talents put it all on the line, sink or swim.

Music and images work propulsively to pull the viewer along. There's so much more to this movie. I haven't even mentioned Vinnie's complicated relationship with his estranged father with mob connections, or Kenneth O'Brien's oily performance as a disc jockey. Vinnie must appease to get airplay. Most notoriously, I haven't spoken of Maureen McCormick.

Yes, Marsha Brady and her portrayal of a sexy reporter who gets a little too involved with one of Vinnie's stars. You heard me right, Marsha Brady seduces a teen idol. For me to say any more about the idol maker would be to spoil it. Just understand that Vinnie's story arc is believable and complete. You're with Vinnie through every success and failure, every misstep and triumph.

We the viewers, may not always agree with him or what he does to achieve his goal, but you can't take your eyes off of him. We see the core of Vinnie and always pull for him to achieve his dreams. And I simply cannot imagine any other actor embodying the character of Vinnie more fully than Ray Sharky. Possibly my favorite song on the soundtrack is I Believe It Can Be Done, which was sung by Ray Sharky himself. It's such a beautiful summation of the character and his journey, and performed so poignantly by Sharky.

It gets me every time I hear it. Love. There's a life long poson, but it is love why we're here. You got to make a million pieces fit if you. Want to make some sense of it.

And I'll never queen. Oh no, I've just begun because I believe it can be done. I believe it can be done. And maybe when it hurts the mode, oh maybe that means you're geting clothes. And when you think you can get booed, maybe all you got to.

Do is just dude. The Idol Maker was a critical success and modestly successful at the box office, but beyond Sharky's Golden Globe Award, the film all but disappeared after release. Fabian Forte, the real life inspiration for Checksire, also filed a sixty four million dollar lawsuit against the film, alleging defamation and invasion of privacy. He would later settle out of court. Ray Sharky would never reach the same heights again as an actor.

Frustrated with his lack of success, he would fall into a serious heroin addiction, which necessitated several rehab stints that seriously stunted a once promising career. He would eventually rebound, finding success as Sonny Steelgrave in the hit TV series Wise Guy. Sharky's portrayal of Sonny was so popular they found ways to bring the character back even after the character's death, usually portraying him as appearing in the lead character's dreams, but the momentum eventually stalled after Wise Guy and the plumb Rolls dried up again. Sharky would eventually die of AIDS related complications in nineteen ninety three at the age of forty. Nowadays, a movie like The Idolmaker might end up in streaming purgatory, one movie amongst hundreds, probably thousands, just to drop in the content bucket.

It would be hard for someone to discover randomly. Maybe word of mouth would carry it, maybe not. But back in those early days of cable TV that I mentioned up top, the cable networks were always looking for more content to fill their programming days. I have a vivid memory of seeing the trailer for the Idol Maker played on the movie channels. This is what passed for commercials back then, a clever way for viewers to get a little sneak peek at the other offerings.

Plus, it effectively mirrored those coming attractions we were so used to seeing in the actual movie theaters, making it feel even more like the theatrical experience brought home. You got back head done and well, just talking up about it. Again. You got it, Tommy, I saw it in it. Do you know something?

With the right handling, you can go all the way. He'll teach you how to move. All we're gonna do is loosen it up and bring the talent up to magic fail. How to smile? They want Prince Chohnnie, you know somebody cute and safe?

How to sing? I just want to take you where I'm going. Where He'll tell you when to think. I told you I want the movies with Tommy, not television. You got that win to talk from now on.

You don't go nowhere. You don't need this house. You don't do nothing. Went to love. One of your star reporters was having an affair with one of the idols and if.

You're lucky, if you last, he'll make you a star. I can make it that before you keep it. He's the idol maker. He is. Here, is the.

The business needs a new teen idol, and Tommy's the one. He's the voice behind the voice. Must be pretty tough to even get it played, maybe three or four times a day. Well, he's the face behind the face. There's somebody special, so many people are gonna want to look at him.

He's the mind behind the fantasies of minions. He takes a no one. He's not going to get there unless I you mean, you're not going to get there unless you push that and. Makes him someone, building him into a legend to everyone, and let me. See you through.

These crazy idea. The Idol Maker starring Ray Shockey, Tobah Felcher, Peter Gallagher, and Paul Land. The Idol Maker, He could. Do it for you. My brothers and I loved this movie, and I can even remember watching it with my parents, who must have been a little concerned at their seven year old son watching a movie with decidedly adult situations and language.

But pretty much all that adult stuff was over my head and I just focused on the music, spectacle and magnetism of the lead character. I still counted amongst my very favorite movies, musical or otherwise. There were even several attempts to remake The Idol Maker over the years. In two thousand and eight, the producing team behind the filmed adaptation of Chicago announced their intent to produce a stage version of Idol Maker. In twenty eleven, it was reported that Ryan Gosling was slated to make his directorial debut and star in a remake of The Idol Maker, and in twenty fourteen, Variety reported that a remake was in the works, to be directed by Hustle and Flows Craig Brewer and starring Justin Timberlake.

Two of the original film's producers, Howard Koch and Gene Kirkwood, were even slated to produce. However, none of these ever seemed to progress beyond the announcement stage. How can someone see The Idol Maker today? Well, Shout Factory put out a terrific blu ray edition of The Idol Maker several years ago, which included Taylor Hackford's outstanding director's commentary. For streaming, you can find it on MGM plus.

Either way, It's well worth seeking out if you're a fan of rock musicals, particularly featuring the late fifties early sixties. But don't worry if that's not your thing. The story of the Idol Maker is timeless, as are the performances. Give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

That's it for this episode of Noise Junkies. Thank you for indulging me once again. When I'm not listening to music, you can find me elsewhere on the Weirdingway Network. I co host The Night Mister Walters, a taxi podcast alongside midnight viewings fathm Alone, and I'm an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with CHRISTASHIU and I have a band camp site hpmusic plays dot bandcamp dot com. I've just released a brand new album called Wired and Waiting.

Please check it out. As always, please feel free to write us, rate us, review us. We'd love to hear from you in any manner that you choose. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you again next time.