Word: cowboy
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...CUMULATIVE effect of these stories shatters one of the pervasive myths usually associated with the American Dream: the rugged individualist. Not everybody in this book wants to be thought of as a cowboy poking along into the sunset. They tend to value--even rely on--community much more than Americans are supposed to. Take, for example, Sam Lopez, a former gang member, who reformed and eventually became director of a program for ex-offenders. Like many others, he cannot achieve personal satisfaction until he has helped others; he doesn't come off at all preachy, only determined to see that...
Carrying two brown satchels, one filled with $777,000 in $100 bills and the other empty, an unidentified man, dressed in jeans and cowboy boots, walked into Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas last week. He exchanged his money for $500 chips, strode to the craps table and put all of the chips on the back line, which meant that he was betting against the woman who happened to be rolling the dice. She first threw a six, then a nine and finally a seven. Said the dealer: "Pay the back line." The man scooped up his chips...
...final years, during the deluge of violence and pornography, the film office struggled to maintain reasonable standards despite changing times. After 1971, the year the Catholic office withdrew its support of the Hollywood rating code, the Review branded 15% of releases with a C. But Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy, rated X by the film industry itself, got the Catholics' A-4 (O.K. for adults "with reservations") because it was seen as a serious slice-of-life film, homosexuality and all. Another A-4 film, John Travolta's disco epic Saturday Night Fever, was deemed to contain positive moral...
...pick someone from the studio's stable of contract actors. When the studios cut back in the '60s, that system was largely dismantled. Producers had to find actors on their own, and they began to depend on a new group of independent casting directors. Explains Urban Cowboy Producer Robert Evans: "I don't have the time to go to off-Broadway plays and little theaters or to watch hours of television...
...good example of the casting director's art is Urban Cowboy itself. Unable to find the right woman to play the part of Travolta's wife, Evans called in Michael Fenton; he suggested Debra Winger, who had appeared in two little-known films. She was an inspired choice. Her restless sexiness enlivened an otherwise tedious film-and stole the spotlight from Travolta. Joyce Selznick found Kurt Russell, who, after losing 20 lbs. and dying his hair black, played the great pelvis in ABC's Elvis. When Elvis was shown in February 1979, it drew higher ratings than...