Tales from the Soc Side...
On Jul 14 2005, the website forum was greeted by Grady Smith, one of 5 'Socs' who worked in the film whose scenes were cut from the originally released editon. While he did not have a credited part, he has plenty to share with the fans of the film...
Exertps from his posts...
"I can only tell you how excited I am to finally see this DVD come to light, I was one of the 5 soc's who rode in the Red Corvair and cut Pony Boy after we jumped him in back of his house, I was 18 and have waited all this time to finally see all of the deleted scenes they never put in, I can remember the day Tom Cruise walked in twirling his numb chucks at Lowell school, Thats were all the actors and crew were, I was a greaser to start then tried out for a speaking role and they made me one of the 5 Soc's. Tom was the kindest person I had ever met it seemed, As well was Emillo who him and Tom drove to Tulsa in Emillo's black chevy truck all the way from CA. I did so many things with all the the actors and for three months it was to good to be true at times."
"So many stories to tell about my 3 months with these awesome people and I will if anyone is interested, believe me a few of the stories could make Oprah. I was with the soc's untill I had to leave for the USMC. I had signed up before my mother sent in my picture for a screen test and I served my country instead of backing out (besides they said they would throw me in jail if I backed out so I missed the Rumble scene filming.
You can see me here, www.zoetrope.com/zoe_films.cgi?acti...how_still&id=31 I am second from the left with my head only showing and I think thats my arm reaching in. And on the floor was one of the soc' in the car, we were trying the scene out on him first. he was hooked up with a blood machine that ran all the way to his knife which he cut pony boy with and blood came out the knife. another scene I hope is put back in, every scene I filmed was cut and I did over two weeks of filming. I could spend all night here telling you stories about this movie. Anyway Life is awesome and I have a great family, were all excited to finally see me and what I did 20 odd years ago. And Finally I can prove it. "
"I was in boot camp when the movie was shown in Tulsa, my mom told me that all my scenes were cut, I was kinda upset but I was paid $398 a day for almost 2 weeks of filming, that was SAG min so I was happy about that at least, well I dont know where to start so I guess Ill try to start from the begining. My mom sent in my high school picture when I was at Nathan Hale in Tulsa when she read they were going to make the movie, they called her and had me go to Lowell school in Tulsa. I was a senior in high school at the time not to liked to well but things were going to change very quick. I got a part as a Greaser with about 12 other guys, we had to do all kinds of tumbling and jumping, they told us that we were going to be walking down the street doing all kinds of jumping and acting like hoods. Thats when I met Tom Cruise and Emillo, I got to the school early and had heard that all the stars were coming in from out of state so I was in the room we always practiced and in walks Tom, out of all he was always very kind and nice, unlike Matt Dillion who at first kept far away from everyone, but that changed too, I took him and Tom , Rob, and Ralph to a dance hall named "The Caravan" were no-one even cared about Tom or Rob, they were in the corner of the dance floor and Tom was doing back flips. the next thing I know Matt is being surrounded by girls and I mean alot of girls, he grabbed me and asked me to get him out of here, I held on to him and we pushed our way out, We all met back outside and got in my truck and headed back to the hotel, I think it was named Excelsior or something like that. On the way to the hotel I can remember Tom standing up in the back of my truck and screaming woo hoo and all, they were just as normal as everyone of my friends, I guess Tom had no Idea he was going to be the biggest of them all. Ralph seemed to never be out of char and he looked younger than me but was over 20 years old, he told me his exact age but I cant remember I was just amazed how young he looked. the more I write the more I remember. I guess C. Thomas Howell and Darren Dalton were my best friends during this time, and the ragging of C. Thomas was true but they used to rag Tom just as much, with the line from Taps. "Its beautiful man, its beautiful!! I can remember them all doing that alot."
Added July 19, 2005:
Rob Lowe wanted to buy some boots for himself and asked me to take him to this boot store I knew, Matt Dillion wanted to go to but when we got to the boot store he went into the arcade and Rob went into buy his boots, before Matt got out of my truck he told me to tell anyone who asked who he was that his name was "Joe Shmuckatelly" At that time Matt was the most famous of them all and he tried to hide it everywhere he went, afterwards we went to Godfathers pizza and he and Rob gave the waitress a autograph.
there is this still of Patrick Swayze on a ladder, that was one of the scenes that I was in where the 5 Soc's drove by where he was working and tossed beers at him, funny thing was we did this about 5 times and everytime we made our run from the word action we had to stop and buy more beer on the next take, we would run into the DX station and buy a six pack of Bud tallboys and drink them down real fast, then we hear on the two way radio "action" over and over and by the last time we were getting a little drunk, I wonder if Mr. Coppola really knew how drunk we were. back then a six pack of Tallboys was just over 2 dollars
More to come soon...
See the pictures on the upper left. Click the thumbnails to enlarge them.
