Can Rich Strike do it again? Or is it We the People – political favorite! Or Mo Donagal?
You gotta watch to see the action – c’mon you can spare the two minutes!
Post time Saturday June 11 – 6:45 NBC – TV coverage starts at #
Talking to an old friend, Kelli Thompson, who worked as a publicist on the Black Stallion film about some of our experiences I thought you might like to hear some more “behind the scenes” stories. Those days in the 70s – 80s had some great times, people and places! Thanks for putting together this stroll down memory lane Kelli!!
Memories of doing publicity for THE BLACK STALLION
By Kelli Thompson
I helped work on publicity and marketing for the movie THE BLACK STALLION. Part of my job included working closely with actor Kelly Reno (Alec, in the film) and his parents, Bud and Ruth Reno. I escorted them all around Los Angeles as I took Kelly to different talk shows and interviews. It was also arranged for Cass Ole (credited as Cass-Olé in the movie), the magnificent Arabian horse that starred as The Black in the film, to come to California for various publicity events.
I had Kelly as a guest on The Mike Douglas Show and Cass Ole was brought out in front of the audience for a bit. His trainer had him rear up and do tricks and the audience was thrilled being so close to the horse. Mike Douglas was concerned at having such a large animal on his set with its slippery floor so Cass Ole’s performance was cut short. The actor George Kennedy was another talk show guest that day. Mr. Kennedy was so kind and decent to Kelly and proclaimed, on air, that Kelly deserved an Academy Award nomination for his acting in the movie.
Perhaps one of the bigger publicity events at the time was The Black Stallion Day at Hollywood Park Racetrack. The racetrack printed out 10,000 t-shirts that proclaimed “Hollywood Park Presents the Black Stallion”. The t-shirts were given to everyone in attendance at the racetrack that day. Kelly was scheduled to ride Cass Ole on a section of the track, parading in front of the crowd between races, while wearing his racing silks from the movie. Teri Garr, who portrayed Kelly’s mom in the movie, was also in attendance. Kelly and his parents flew out to California and when I met them Ruth was worried because the airline had lost the suitcase that had Kelly’s racing silks (the originals from the movie) in it. She was also concerned that Kelly had grown so much they might not even fit anymore. Fortunately, shortly before Kelly was due to appear at the racetrack, the racing silks showed up. He hurriedly changed into them and luckily they still fit and his appearance went off without a hitch.
I brought my camera with me that day which I generally never did. I took some photos with it and also handed it off to other people to take photographs of me with folks I’d been working with so much.
Kelly, his parents, and I spent time before and after his appearance in the racetrack’s private club house. I was standing there, chatting with people, when a man walked up behind me. I turned around and much to my surprise it was the actor Cary Grant. Grant smiled and gestured at Kelly, asking for an introduction. It was my immense honor to introduce them both. I turned to Kelly and said “Kelly, there is someone here who would like to meet you.” Now, Kelly was maybe 12 or 13 at the time so I’m still not sure if he really knew who Grant was. Kelly was immediately gracious and respectful. Grant was so genuine and complimentary to Kelly, telling him how much he admired his work in the film. I managed to grab my camera and take a photo of the two when they posed for journalists that were there. You can see in my photo that Grant is looking at the reporters but Kelly is looking at me (because he knew me). Behind them on the right you can partially see Ruth Reno beaming at them both.
It turns out that Mr. Grant was on the racetrack’s Board of Directors and spent many years at Hollywood Park. A casino at the racetrack was later named after him.
Considering this was Kelly’s first time doing movie publicity I was very impressed by his professionalism. He was still a kid but he was relaxed and natural in every appearance he made. Bud and Ruth Reno were good people all the way around and made my job easier. For a few years after the film came out I got Christmas cards from them. It was such a nice gesture and I’ve kept all the cards I received from them.
I am forever grateful that others there that day managed to get a couple of photos of me introducing Grant to Kelly. This was decades before cell phones so it’s kind of a miracle that I have any records of that day, outside of what I photographed. In the photo of Grant shaking hands with Kelly, Ruth and Kelly’s aunt (I believe that’s his aunt) can be seen at the table behind them while I am standing next to Grant.
It was a remarkable time and an even more remarkable movie. I still consider myself so fortunate to have been involved to the small degree that I was.
Kelli Thompson worked in film and television in publicity and production for many years. Her credits include publicity work on THE BLACK STALLION, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, ALIEN, COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER, ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, and FLASH GORDON. Her other credits include work on STAR TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION, STAR TREK-GENERATIONS, MURDER SHE WROTE, KNOTS LANDING, THE HOWLING, HARD RAIN, BUFFALO SOLDIERS, BLACK CAT RUN, and MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE. She is currently a photographer specializing in fine art photography and photojournalism. www.Kelli.photo
First published in 1941, Walter Farley’s best-selling novel for young readers is the triumphant tale of a boy and a wild horse. From Alec Ramsay and the Black’s first meeting on an ill-fated ship, to their adventures on a desert island and their eventual rescue, this beloved story will hold the rapt attention of readers new and old. We are thrilled to welcome another wonderful horse and book set to the Breyer collection! Freedom Series | Ages 8+ | 1:12 Scale
Watch the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 1 from 12 to 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Full coverage is also available on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
Production Assistant Tim Farley’s Flashbacks on Filming.
“I met director Carroll Ballard when he and my dad were looking for an Arabian stallion to play The Black,” says Tim Farley, who was still in college, finishing a photography degree at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California when his father Walter Farley’s beloved novel, The Black Stallion, began its transformation to the big screen.
“I went to talk to Carroll and to Fred Roos, the producer, to see if I could get a job. Of course, they said I could have a job. They didn’t say they would pay me, at first. I was a 21-year-old kid who knew nothing about making movies,” says Farley laughing.
He would end up skipping graduation ceremonies to start on the film, which began production in Toronto in 1977.
“My first job was working in the office,” Farley recalls. “The film was in preproduction at that point. One of my assignments was to make copies of all the script changes for the crew. However, I also ran off an extra set of copies to send to my dad. So, he would send them back with all these comments on them, of course, and they were like, ‘Where is he getting all this information?’ I was his mole! They weren’t real happy about that, to tell you the absolute truth.”
Still, it brought benefits. “Actually, my dad came up with the sequence in the jockey’s room before The Black races. It became a humorous scene in the movie, because they kept adding weight to this little kid. The way the script was originally written had Alec sneaking weight into his pockets, or putting on a weight belt, or something. My dad said, ‘Nobody would do that. The officials add all the handicap weight jockeys must carry. They would never sneak weight.’ He came up with some helpful ideas.”
Farley smiles when he thinks back on it. “It was fascinating driving to the set daily with Mickey Rooney in Toronto, the location for our 1940s New York scenes. Mickey had been in a long career slump, but The Black Stallion brought him an Oscar nomination and he returned to the stage.”
When the production went overseas, Farley went too.
“From set of the Black Stallion when I was 22. Don’t know the photographer, it was sent to my Dad [Walter Farley] and on his office wall,” says Farley.
“The most memorable days for me were on the island. It took us months to get some of those shots,” he says. “My screen credit was ‘production assistant,’ but with only about 30 of us on crew [there], I did a little bit of everything. It was shot almost like a documentary, with a small crew on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
A small crew and not many — make that no — creature comforts: “It was exciting, even though we had to take cold showers!” Farley says. “Working on those beach sequences, there were no hotels. We stayed in an empty school with cold-water showers. Every once in a while you’d see a tourist come through for an hour or two, but we were pretty far out.”
The remote location brought unique challenges. “We had to do a lot of tracking shots, like The Black running down the sand bar, especially when Alec’s learning to ride and keeps falling off. We had to kind of wing it. We couldn’t say, ‘Oh, we need some dolly track here for 500 yards and we have to go 30 miles an hour. So, how are you going to do that?”
The answer was improvise: “They came up with a Citroën 2CV. It’s like a French version of a Volkswagen Beetle. We took the doors off and the seats out. We used that as our [camera] dolly to race down the beach. The horse was going pretty fast.”
Rarely without his own camera, Farley often photographed the star horse, Cass-Olé. “He and Kelly had a good relationship because they spent so much time together before the movie started. But Cass-Olé was kind of like the character of The Black. He was very independent, knew he was gorgeous, and that everybody loved him. He’d take control if you’d let him. On the other hand, Cass was gentle with Kelly. Corky Randall trained Cass for months to be able to work him at liberty and have him listen to voice commands.
” Dad [Walter Farley] editing my pix after getting back. [from filming],” says Farley
“I was one of the lucky people there watching a young Kelly Reno portray Alec Ramsay together with Cass-Olé as The Black. Those scenes on the beach with the magic of the boy and the horse getting to be friends on the island really did happen,” Farley says. “Also, at the end of the movie, where you see that big double rainbow and the horse rolls on the ground and Kelly rolls on the ground — it was totally impromptu. It’s during the credit roll at the very end of the film.”
When filming finished, coming home took some adjustment. “It was almost like in the movie — when Alec arrives back in America — that first sequence when he’s in a real bathroom with running water. That’s kind of what happened to us too,” Farley remembers.
Forty years later, the memories from those months working on the film are still vivid and exciting. “Learning something new every day … you never knew who might show up — Harrison Ford, Matt Dillon, Francis [Ford Coppola], even Scorsese. I met Fellini at Cinecittà [Studios, where the shipwreck scene was filmed in Rome].”
But the best part, Farley says, was “just being part of this small family that included the wonderful horses and horsemen, from cowboys to Hollywood.”
(Lead image) Tim Farley trying his hand at liberty work rearing the Black Stallion that starred in the long-running (now closed) Arabian Nights Dinner Attraction in Orlando. Walter Farley was close friends with the family and gave permission for the black stallion namesake to only be used there. Curious tidbit. Glenn Randall Sr. (Corky’s father) did the original horse training at Arabian Nights.
