Word: kidded
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...there, in the walk that John Travolta takes through the opening credits of Saturday Night Fever. Right there is the little kid from New Jersey who danced in front of the television while he watched James Cagney storm-tapping through Yankee Doodle Dandy. The boy in the chorus who trundled his way through a nine-month tour of Grease. The young man who landed a supporting part on a sitcom, watched himself become a TV star, a pretty face on a poster, and a purveyor of slick, sappy top 40 ballads. All that bought him a shot at what...
Travolta cannot be immune to this mythmaking process. Like autograph hounds, it comes with the territory, and the quiet kid from Englewood, N.J., is already getting typed as a kind of Steiff Toy hoodlum. This has something to do, of course, with the parts that have brought him fame: Vinnie Barbarino in Kotter, Tony in Saturday Night Fever, even Danny Zuko, the cuddly tough guy in Grease, all rough-and-ready proles with a hint of self-mockery and a double dose of wistfulness. Travolta's low profile will be his best chance of holding onto his privacy and whatever...
...neighborhood in Englewood hasn't changed, and his parents still live in the same frame house. Kids frequently descend on the place now, and the elder Travoltas pass out glossies of their youngest son. Down in the bright red basement recreation room, there is a large bulletin board crowded with pictures of all the kids. Here the superstar receives equal billing with his siblings, and his picture smiles out among shots of Ellen, now 37, who is acting in pilots for both NBC and CBS; Margaret, 32, who does TV and voice-overs in Chicago; Anne, 29, just married...
THIRTY SUMMERS AGO, the owner of a Jewish resort in the Catskills hired a skinny, crazy kid named Mel to amuse the middle-aged couples lounging around the swimming pool. That proprietor could hardly have known it, but in hiring that kid he unleashed a comic force of staggering proportions upon the Borscht Belt and eventually, the rest of the world. Mel Brooks was plainly crazy. He would do anything to get a laugh, and while his written gags frequently bore the stamp of genius, he often resorted to simply slapstick or "dirty" words. Either way, audiences loved...
...kid making it in the corporate world...