My book about the Ross Sisters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE IN May 2025: I've completed the third and final draft of the book. The working title now is The Contortionists. Follow the Facebook page here or get more info at joeoconnell.com.

You've likely seen the video on Youtube. Soon you'll learn their true story.

What I'm currently working on:

Three sisters from West Texas saved their family from the Great Depression when a chance encounter with acrobatic neighbors sparked an unexpected career as singing contortionists.

The Ross sisters quickly traded in their childhoods for roadhouses and rodeo shows. Soon they were on Broadway and in the movies. At the urging of their mother Veda--who trained them relentlessly--the girls lied up their ages.

Just after WWII ended, the Ross Sisters sailed on the Queen Mary to London to perform in a hit stage show. Free of their mother for the first time, they each met a fellow performer and married: Betsy Ross to a schizophrenic and charismatic dancer from America, Vicki Ross to a lovable French ventriloquist and baby Dixie to an English actor and comedian.

Dixie would die on her 15th wedding anniversary, and her sisters would be left to pick up the pieces and save their own children from what they feared had become a family curse.

The Ross Sisters fame was short-lived, but bubbled up in the '90s when their act was featured in the film That's Entertainment III, and again in a new century when their contortions made them Youtube sensations.

I'm in the middle of research and writing. Wish me luck!

A Rondo Hatton short until 'Rondo and Bob' is released

The release of Rondo and Bob at film festivals is on hold until, well, there are film festivals again! We were set to premiere during Megacon in Orlando at the affiliated Saints and Sinner Film Festival, but Megacon was first delayed, then canceled. It may be back in October. We may be part of it, but that's not a certainty.

In the meantime, what is there to do but make some short films from home! We created Meet the Creeper! for Roger Corman's Quarantine Film Festival. The Rondo Hatton mask Paul Smith created for Rondo and Bob was at my house, so we told Rondo's story. I enlisted my son and wife. Kirk Hunter did the editing. My son played trombone and wore the mask. My wife was Mae Hatton. The Austin Chronicle even wrote about the short. You can see the completed film here.

Granny from 'Chain Saw' found!

Photo © Joe M. O'Connell

It took more than a year to track her down, but we finally unearthed Granny, as created by Robert A. Burns for the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. She was in an undisclosed--and quite secret--location in Texas.

The purpose? Film her for my documentary Rondo and Bob about Chain Saw art director Bob Burns and his obsession with the actor Rondo Hatton. We are entering the main editing phase of the project so it was particularly sweet to find Granny, who is holding up nicely. My shooter/editor Kirk kept the zombies at bay while I took this snap.

You can see more about the documentary at rondoandbob.com or find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rondoandbob/.

My next documentary is 'Rondo and Bob'

The cat has clawed its way out of the bag. I'm working on a documentary called Rondo and Bob about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre art director Robert A. Burns and the actor Rondo Hatton, whom Bob Burns was obsessed with. (See more at the web site here: Rondoandbob.com

Robert A. Burns

 Austin American-Statesman columnist John Kelso made the announcement in his column:


Joe O’Connell is doing his part to promote Austin’s eccentricity.

O’Connell, an old newspaper guy who has written about film for several Texas papers, is shooting a documentary about the late Robert Burns, the man who put the gore in the original “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movie.

In case you haven’t been keeping up with your blood and guts horror classics, Burns did the macabre artwork for the film. Although you wouldn’t guess he’d head in that direction if you met him; Burns was a real sweetheart, a soft-spoken guy with what I suspect was a genius IQ.

There’s never been another one like Robert Burns. They didn’t throw away the mold, because there was no mold. Although his South Austin home was a bit moldy.

Rondo Hatton

Burns lived in a two-story dust-collector in South Austin furnished with props from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” There was the arm chair, so-called because of the prosthetic arms Burns attached. When I visited Burns, a battery-powered rubber hand was crawling across the floor upstairs with a knife run through it, a prop Burns put together for an upcoming film project.

Burns made these masks.

What project? Who knows? But I’m betting it wasn’t “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

During my visit Burns sat me down and showed me the massacre movie on a small TV. His review? He had one complaint: All that screaming from characters being hacked to pieces made the film extremely loud.

Read the rest here.

Patty Hearst gets kidnapped in Austin

Filming begins next week in Austin on a limited-run retelling of heiress Patty Hearst's kidnapping, my sources confirm. It will continue through June 10.

It tells the tale of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst granddaughter, who was abducted from her Berkeley apartment by terror group the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974 and soon was sporting a gun of her own during a bank robbery.

The series comes from Austin-based Bat Bridge Entertainment, which shot some scenes at a former bank in Taylor last summer. 

Casting calls talk of a "major network" behind the "Untitled PH Series" seeking " featured extras for recreations of real people, so the actors will be matching historical figures, and their faces will not be seen straight-on." That network is either CNN or CBS. The latter talked of just such a series last year.


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Also currently shooting around Austin are a Comedy Central pilot Power Couple and Andrew Bujalski's indie film Support the Girls.

Dracula vs. Frankenstein vs. Sam Sherman

Sam Sherman and Frankenstein from Joe O'Connell on Vimeo.

Just when we thought the documentary Love and Other Stunts was complete, I took a trip to legendary B-movie producer Sam Sherman's New Jersey house and met Frankenstein.

Sherman and I talked about the independent film scene of the '60s and '70s, about director Al Adamson (and Adamson's murder) and, of course, about stuntman Gary Kent whose story is the focus of Love and Other Stunts.

Sherman said he believed Kent was destined to be a major Hollywood star or perhaps the star of a television series, but instead Kent was soon back on the Adamson crew. But Kent's life did take interesting turns as you'll see in the doc. (Get regular updates on our Facebook page.)

Sherman said Kent's role as the good-guy lead in Satan's Sadists was a turning point for his Independent-International Pictures. Sherman is first and foremost a fan and a collector of film reels and memorabilia. He's also still actively working as head of IIP. And, as you can see, he knows just what box to open to reveal the star of Dracula vs. Frankenstein.

Find more about Love and Other Stunts here.

Sam Sherman: Photo by Joe O'Connell

Rodriguez seeks extras as 'Alita' begins Austin shoot

Robert Rodriguez is back in action directing Alita: Battle Angel for Fox in Austin from now until February.

According to Deadline, it's set in a 26th-century dystopian future: "The film follows the story of an amnesiac cyborg who, after being rescued from a scrap heap by a doctor (Christoph Waltz), becomes a bounty hunter tracking down criminals."

Actress and singer Eiza González has the lead role. She also stars in Rodriguez's El Rey Network series From Dusk Till Dawn. Rodriguez shocked Austin locals when he moved series production to film friendlier (as in incentives) New Mexico for season three. The cast also includes Lana Condor, Rosa Salazar, Jackie Earle Haley and Ed Skrein.

It's an adaptation of  the graphic novel series Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kushiro. James Cameron wrote the script with Laeta Kalogridis.

Third Coast Extras is handing background roles, which include punk rocker types, Asians and East Indians, but also general folks of all ages. Get more info at the casting company's Facebook page.

The film is set for a 2018 release.

Dallas-based actress shines in 'No Letting Go'

Cheryl Allison's long, successful career has taken her to Broadway, but she's back in Dallas and finally breaking out on the big screen as the anchor of the film No Letting Go, which is being released on demand on cable television starting today.

It's a harrowing tale based on a true story of a mother who struggles to keep herself and her family together as one of her three sons suffers from an anxiety that blossoms in his teen years into a full-blown bipolar disorder combined with haunting depression.

Allison knows the role well. She starred in the short Illness that won so many honors on the festival circuit that filmmaker Jonathan Bucari chose to expand into a full feature film. It's inspired by the real-life experiences of Randi Silverman, who co-wrote the script with Bucari. She co-founded a support group for parents raising children with anxiety, depression and/or mood disorders. The group has served more than 800 families in the past five years. Silverman talks about that experience here.

No Letting Go provides a perfect showcase for the realities these parents face. It's beautifully shot and ably acted, with Kathy Najimy particularly shining as a no-nonsense therapist. The cast also includes Richard Burgi of Desperate Housewives and a number of soap operas, and Janet Hubert of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Silverman's real-life son Noah Silverman stars as the 14-year-old suffering from mental illness. His brother's story is the film's inspiration.

In Fort Worth, Allison is regularly seen on stage at Casa Manana, but she might see more film roles coming her way once word gets out of her strong performance in No Letting Go. It's a film that rates seeking out for its frank treatment of a topic that people are often unwilling to openly discuss.

Fear drove Hitckcock, author says

My conversation with Michael Wood about his new Alfred Hitchcock bio for  Kirkus Reviews:


The famed director Alfred Hitchcock’s secret to success? He was afraid.
 
That’s Michael Wood’s take in Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much, a thoughtful peek into the director’s work and psyche released as part of the Icons series, which has in previous volumes delved into everyone from Jesus to Stalin to Edgar Allan Poe. Hitchcock is most famed as the master of suspense, and the book submits that it points back to his youth when Hitchcock was consumed by the fear of being stopped by a policeman.

Read the rest here.

Terrence Malick's 'Cups' head to Berlin, has first trailer

Austin resident Terrence Malick has two movies in the works (not counting the big Imax project about the history of the world). One is Knight of Cups set in Los Angeles. It's set to premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, we learned today. And there's a first trailer on Youtube.

The Austin film? It's set in the music scene and out there somewhere. Here's the best lowdown on it that I've seen.

Andrew Shapter beats cancer while making art

Since August I've been tailing Andrew Shapter, a former fashion photographer turned documentary filmmaker, through his 
aggressive treatment of chemotherapy and radiation aimed at sucker punching cancer. In the midst of it, he's been working to get his magical feature film debut The Teller and the Truth out to the world.

My resulting article is the cover story of the current Austin Chronicle. It's a twofer as my photos run with the story, including this cover image.

Here's how the story begins:

The air outside Texas Oncology in South Austin smells of burnt electricity. The scent lingers as Andrew Shapter is summoned to radiation. White confetti covers the floor outside the room Shapter visits five days a week. It signals that someone – not Shapter – has completed treatment. Two emergency medical technicians steer a man reclined on a stretcher near a sign that reads CAUTION. VERY HIGH RADIATION AREA. Shapter greets the man, and they compare radiation treatments. The man has 35 scheduled, Shap­ter 33. "You can have my extras," the man says with a smile. Inside, Shapter strips his shirt off, dons a white mask molded precisely for his face, opens his laptop to a playlist he's put together for just this moment, and braces himself for the X-ray beam that will burn into his neck. Louis Armstrong sings, "What a Wonderful World."

Andrew Shapter, 47, has been many things in this life: a high school class clown who concocted homemade fart devices, an actor, a political junkie toiling in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., a successful fashion photographer, a documentary filmmaker, a husband, a father. Today he focuses on three challenges: Ford, a doe-eyed infant son crawling across the floor and urging his dad to play; a feature film, The Teller & the Truth, five years in the making; and squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer that claims about 2,500 lives each year. "I had a choice of either going for the fierce fight or the long road," Shapter says. "With my son in mind, I decided I was going to take it hard and fast." The 20-minute radiation treatments are capped by once-a-week, six-hour chemotherapy sessions. On weekends, he crashes. Hard.

Read the rest here.

Linklater's bitchin' early '80s movie is a go

Yes, Richard Linklater's long-awaited early '80s college film, tentatively titled That's What I'm Talking About, appears ready to shoot in Austin in October and November. It will "center on the start of something new, with the story about college freshman who are trying to make the baseball team."

Early casting has offers out for the three lead baseball players:  Glee’s Blake Jenner, Teen Wolf’s Tyler Hoechlin, and 22 Jump Street’s Wyatt Russell.


And, more important to Austin folk, here's the scoop from the extras casting notice: 

SEEKING EXTRAS: male and female, all ethnicities, all ages!!

**THIS IS A PERIOD PIECE from the LATE 70's to early 80's - will require longer hair on all guys and the ability to style to an 80's look on ladies!!

--Some specific types include:
-Experienced Baseball Players ages 18-25 (Should not currently be or intending to play college baseball as will jeopardize your NCAA eligibility)
-Frat Guys ages 18-25
-Sorority Girls ages 18-25
-Bartenders and Waitresses (experience preferred) ages 21-35
-Punk Rockers ages 18-30
-Country Western types ages 18-30
-Experienced Two-Steppers ages 18-30
-Baseball Coaches ages 25-55
-College Girls and Guys ages 18-25
-Experienced Disco Dancers ages 18-25
-Nightclub Doormen ages 21-35
-Experienced Pool Players ages 18-25
-College Professors ages 30-65
-Hippies
-Bikers
-Jerry Garcia types
-African American men and women
-Asian men and women
-Hispanic men and women
-People with Pre-1981 vehicles
-People with cars from the 70s
--and many other general extra roles!

So the "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused (in which most of the high school kids were hippies) will include punkers, kickers, disco ducks and frat daddies. Plus, of course, lots of baseball players.

How do you apply to be an extra? Go to On Location Casting's Facebook page.

The homeless man who became a movie star

From Gary Poulter's Facebook page.

Gary Poulter looked like the stereotypical homeless guy you might see in Austin: big smile, skin wrinkled from the sun and alcohol abuse, hair like white cotton candy. He's been my obsession for recent months as I tried to track down his real, human story. I didn't want to just know the guy on the streets. I wanted to know the guy who played Little League, the guy who fell in love, the guy who went off the tracks.

Courtesy Debbie Altis.

Read my piece in today's Austin Chronicle for the results. Poulter's sisters Maria and Debbie opened up to me. The casting agents who chose Gary for David Gordon Green's film Joe (which by no coincidence opens today) sat down with me and production coordinator Shanti Delsante. Without these folks there would have been no story. I give them big thanks.

In the modern meta-world, there's also at least one article about the article, this one at Gawker. Now that level of writing about writing makes me smile.

Danish film 'The Idealist' shoots in Texas

Pictured: Thomas Bo Larsen, Søren Malling, Peter Plauborg, Christina Rosendahl; photo credit: Christian Geisnæs

High-profile Danish film The Idealist films at the University of Texas this coming week and is expected to also lens a bit in Dallas. Main shooting is in Denmark and Sweden.

According to Variety, the story "revolves around a nuclear disaster that erupts during the Cold War, and its subsequent international cover-up.  Pic will follow an everyday man who fights to break the silence and unveil the truth."
 
It's based on true events:

"Near the American Thule Air Base, Greenland, January 21, 1968: A US Air Force B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs is abandoned by the crew after a cabin fire and crashes on to sea ice in the North Star Bay, causing the conventional explosives aboard to detonate and the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse.

A couple of days later the Danish and US governments announce that the incident is under control – no need to worry about violation of Danish sovereignty, nuclear weapon policy or radiation danger. Meanwhile hundreds of Danish workers at Thule are mobilised for a gigantic cleanup operation; after eight months all traces of the smashed aircraft and the plutonium contaminated snow have been removed.

18 years later a Danish young radio journalist, Paul Brink, is approached by one of the former Thule workers, who argues that a colleague’s mysterious skin disease was caused by the cleanup effort. Brink is skeptical, but as it turns out that other participants in the operation across the country are struggling with the same disorder, he confronts government agencies with his suspicions. The silence is deafening."

UT-Austin stands in as the National Archives. Christian Rosendahl is directing and also co-wrote the script. The cast includes noted Danish actors Soren Malling (A Hijacking), Peter Plaugborg (Borgen) and Thomas Bo Larsen (The Hunt)

'Serious' Adam Sandler headed to Austin for Reitman flick

This just in: Jason Reitman will shoot his adaptation of Chad Kultgen's book Men, Women, & Children in Austin in December with Adam Sandler starring along with Jennifer Garner and Rosemarie DeWitt. And don't expect funny Sandler in this naughty tale. News of the planned film first leaked during the Toronto Film Festival last month.

The story as described on the book, "explores the sexual pressures at work on a handful of troubled, conflicted junior-high students and their equally dysfunctional parents. From porn-surfing fathers to World of Warcraft-obsessed sons, from competitive cheerleaders to their dissatisfied, misguided mothers, Kultgen clicks open the emotionally treacherous culture in which we live—in his most ambitious and surprising book yet."

Scouting has been quietly going on in Austin since June, with some local crew already hired and a production office location set.

Casting agent Vicky Boone has been scouting for seedy area motels and trailer parks, according to her Facebook page. She's also on the lookout for high school students to work on casting with her:


Austin High School Students: I am looking for casting interns who are currently attending an Austin or surrounding area high school, to work on the Paramount Pictures feature film MEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN, directed by Jason Reitman (JUNO, UP IN THE AIR, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING). Especially looking for students at: LASA, Anderson, Lake Travis, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Austin High, Crockett, Reagan, McCallum, Bowie, Griffin or other suburban schools. If you are currently a high school student and interested, please email me at vickyboonecasting@gmail.com. Thanks!

Time Warner's news channel YNN also reports a casting call this Saturday in Austin for some pretty meaty roles:

Casting agents are looking to fill six roles with real high school students. Local agency Vicky Boone Casting lists the following roles available with an open casting call set for Saturday at Austin Studios.

•    TIM: Age 15-17; Caucasian or Hispanic. Tall and athletic. Ideally over 6'2" tall with broad shoulders. He is the star of the football team.
•    DANNY: Age 15-17; African-American. Quarterback of the JV football team.
•    BRANDY: Age 15-17; Any ethnicity. A non-traditional beauty. She is smart, witty and thoughtful.
•    BROOKE: Age 15-17; Caucasian. Cheerleading captain and perfect looking.
•    RORY: Age 15 -17; Any ethnicity. Likeable, male cheerleader, spotter.
•    BRANDON: Age 16-18; Any ethnicity. Older, unsympathetic jock.

The open casting call is Saturday, October 19 from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Red Building at Austin Studios, 1901 E 51st Street.

Casting agents said while it's not required people can email a picture in advance to mwccasting@gmail.com, and applicants will be seen on a first-come, first-seen basis.

First look at JFK assassination film 'Parkland'

Austin State Hospital's turquoise brick walls look all shiny '60s-like in the trailer for the film Parkland. ASH stands in for Parkland Memorial Hospital, where President John F. Kennedy was taken after he was shot in Dallas. Check it out, conspiracy theorists.

Favreau's 'Chef' eats Austin barbecue

       
                   

As we told you the other day, John Favreau is shooting a segment of his film Chef in Austin. We can now tell you where: Franklin's Barbecue. And, as you can see, Robert Rodriguez stopped by for a snack.

Transformers 4 ready to shoot in Taylor, TX

Curious about when the Michael Bay film that is not officially known as Transformers 4 will shoot in Taylor, Texas? Read the signs.

Texas ups the film incentives ante

The Texas Motion Picture Alliance members should give their lobbyists a raise. They somehow sold the Texas Legislature on a record two-year total of $95 million for the state's film incentives program. Does this mean the program now has enough bucks to attract more actual feature films and not just television shows (which aren't bad visitors either if you can get them and a drag when you don't)? Stay tuned, but it looks good. Check out The Austin Chronicle's report, which spells the numbers out.

Just two years ago it was looking like there would be no film incentives program in Texas.

And back in 2009, $60 million for the program had people smiling.

Fourth 'Transformers' film to shoot in Texas in June

My report appears in today's Dallas Morning News. It's behind a pay wall, so here it is in its entirety for you.

BY JOE O’CONNELL

Special to The Dallas Morning News

Michael Bay’s fourth big-budget Transformers film will shoot in the Austin area in June, bringing with it requisite car chases, robots and plenty of explosions.

The Austin Film Commission confirmed 3-4 weeks of filming in the small towns of Lockhart, Taylor, Elgin and Pflugerville. 

A Taylor bridge over the railroad awaits a robot siege.

A large Austin production office opened in March, but location scouting dates back to last November. There was initial interest in the Circuit of the Americas racetrack southeast of Austin, but instead the Austin Film Commission says the focus is on small towns that reminded Bay of Robert Frank’s 1950s photos collected in the classic book The Americans.

In Taylor, 30 minutes from Austin, a police chase will close downtown and a railroad overpass, said Deby Lannen, the city’s Main Street program manager. A car will be exploded in the city’s Robinson Park. “It’s pretty exciting,” she said.

“I know there will be things exploded in Taylor for sure. Some will be physical effects, some CGI,” said Gary Bond, head of the Austin Film Commission.

Lockhart’s Caldwell County Courthouse square will be another filming location, with Taylor and Lockhart combined into one fiction town on screen. Robots will chase down the good guys throughout Central Texas including in Elgin.

The bulk of the untitled movie is expected to lens overseas in China, where a reality television show will cast some roles. According to the web site ReelChicago, shooting will begin in Chicago in July, presumably after Texas filming ends. The Detroit Free-Press in March reported approval of $20 million in filming incentives on $81.9 million in anticipated spending there.

The first three Transformers films grossed $2.6 billion worldwide with the budget for the last two both in the $200 million range. 

No plot has been released for the film, but Mark Wahlberg will star along with Jack Reynor and Nicola Peltz. Wahlberg’s good-guy character’s home will be a farmhouse in Pflugerville. Bay has previously said the film will take a different direction with many new actors.

Bay's production company Platinum Dunes has a history of filming in Central Texas, including 2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its 2006 sequel, plus 2007's The Hitcher. 

The latest Transformers film is set for release in June 2014.