By JAMES D. WATTS JR. Scene Writer on Oct 18, 2011, at 2:18 PM Updated on 10/18 at 2:18 PM
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My colleague Michael Smith wrote a fine story about the real-life Oklahomans who inspired the movie "Footloose," which ran in Sunday's Tulsa World.
It reminded me of an interview I had done a dozen years earlier with Dean Pitchford, who wrote the screenplay for the film "Footloose," as well as the lyrics for most of the movie's songs. The interview was in conjunction with the Tulsa run of the Broadway musical version of the film, which Pitchford also wrote.
Pitchford talked about visiting Oklahoma in order to gain the proper local color for his story about a big-city kid who moves to a small town and help overturn the town's ban on dancing.
He said he headed out for Elmore City, the town with the dancing ban, but had trouble finding it, so he ended up spending time in near-by Ardmore.
"I really knew nothing about this part of the country," Pitchford said. "I didn't understand people who went to church three or four times a week, who drive pickup trucks that have rifles on racks in the rear window."
But, he said, "I really loved the time I spent in Ardmore. The people there are wonderful. They knew they were the model for the film, and they liked the finished product -- we even had a little premiere when it opened there."
The full interview is
here.
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