R K O how you all be doing this fine morning, afternoon, morning, everyone get the coffee. I cheer as fucked it. And I'm actually still awake from Thursday. Uh Don't look at me, do not perceive me. Thank you all so much for joining us. We are the Rocky Talkie podcast. Your weekly dose of everything. Rocky Horror. My name is John. I'm Jacob. I'm Aaron and I'm Meg and y'all do. We have a doozy for you this week. We promised you something that rock, rock rocks hold up just because we're live doesn't mean we can skip the news. I put literal minutes into writing this last night. I think I was doing a lot of stuff last night. It's hard to tell. Yeah, I was about to say I don't trust you to come to me last night. Yes. All right guys. First up in global news, R K O K is this week, Jacob R K O K is organized by the R K O army out of Providence Rhode Island and features. You're fucking fired. Jacob. I'm sorry, everyone. Um Let's just jump over to some community news. That is the news. That's what we're doing right now. That is like more news than any other news. Uh, first up in community news, uh, will the owner of a large red school bus? Please move from the fire lane, Jacob. It's topical. Keep going. Well next up in community news. Uh Roy Rossi would like anyone who finds a water cooler jug of Gatorade to return it to the check-in table. Please do not drink the Gatorade. We cannot emphasize that enough. Did he even say this, Jacob? It was a very light week for news. OK. Uh We're just gonna do the thing. We promised you an exclusive. Never before seen. Look at Richard o'brien's musical. That rock rock rocks and that's exactly what we'll do. We are so excited for the first time ever to reveal the story behind the best, worst Richard o'brien film musical. You've never even fucking heard of Cinderella Rock? Hold up. I'm pretty sure there are people in this room that know every Richard o'brien musical. I myself am partial to the stripper and not just because it's about my favorite kind of paint remover. That's not what the stripper is about. Irregardless. That's not a word un regardless, irregardless. I'm pretty sure we would have all heard about Cinderella Rock before 2022. So what's so special? Well, what's so special is that we found the script? I'm sorry, what we have the actual genuine script for this. Never before seen Richard o'brien musical. He wrote it in 1987 and nobody has seen it since I am so excited about this. There hasn't been a find of unreleased Richard o'brien content in like literally decades. It's kind of unprecedented. It's really unusual. Back in the late eighties, the Rocky community had heard that this movie was going to be made. There was literally one sentence in a fan club newsletter that said Richard was working on it. Uh But the general consensus was that it had stopped production before anything had really happened with it. Uh And then I found the script on ebay. Uh multiple scripts actually. So what you're about to hear is the first ever telling of the plot of this never released film in the bat shit circumstances around its production. So sit back, relax on this Fine Friday morning at the crack of noon. We're gonna explore Richard o'brien's Cinderella together and it is everything but a Disney fairy tale will reveal the story behind the nationwide search for Cinderella with competitions held at malls all across the country, the grand prize, a trip to L A to compete for the starring role and the company that produced the film, a small time V H s distributor that would become the inaugural Domino in the biggest banking scandal of all time. And of course, we cannot forget those hit Richard o'brien classics, the San Fernando R A P love on the four oh five and gag me with a spoon. I think I'd better have a lie down. Are those for real? This movie sounds ridiculous. And a glass sneaker, Corey Feldman, a trip to the electric chair. The Grain Union, a Lamborghini coach cockroach and the bag man, we did say this is fucking weird. So why don't we take a trip back to the late eighties? It's 1987. Never gonna give you up is playing on the radio shock treatment was six years ago and I was not alive and Richard o'brien is Fresh Off B B C's Robin of Sherwood mini series, which I have never heard of until today. Yeah. So that happened while Richard isn't doing that, he writes a film musical that is picked up by a company named transworld Entertainment or maybe they asked him to do it like it's, it's very unclear. The, the script is called uh Cinderella Rock. Subtitled the True Rock story. It's a Cinderella musical set in the mid eighties, San Fernando Valley. Cinderella is a spoiled valley girl and her prince charming is a reluctant rock star named Chins. And no, that's not a slur. It definitely sounds like a Slur Jacob. And then the movie is never made the scripts sit in some archive for 30 years until eventually they just pop up on ebay. So I picked these up not knowing what they really were. And then I read them. Uh And I realized they were actually something that was kind of very interesting. This is Richard o'brien after shock treatment and I found out that they had never been seen by anyone in the rocky community. So this is like Richard's post eighties take on the, the vapid existence that is like, yeah. Yeah, that's nice. Come on spit it. What's the plot we're talking about this movie that never got made? Nobody knows what it is. What is Cinderella Rock? What are these songs? What's the story? So to help tell the story, we've got some fabulous illustrations done by the community's own Lola Montez Michelle from New York. We love her very much. All of these super cool character illustrations come from her reading through the script and bringing to life, these characters that never made it off the page. Just imagine John is Richard o'brien. That is correct. It's 1987. He's done a mountain of cocaine. Yes, I did. Uh And this is his pitch for Cinderella Rock. We open on a supermarket with Harry Rock. He is Cinderella's dad. He's a rich biscuit manufacturer. Richard means cookies, but it's fine. He's British, right. Harry makes princess cookies and he's got a problem with his daughter. That's his biological daughter, Cinderella, who, as you might imagine was from his first marriage. It's a Cinderella story. Remember that? And after we meet Harry Slam Bam title sequence right into the overture. It's Cinderella Rock and this is where we are introduced to our Prince Charming Rock. Star Chins, which again is Lottie Slur and a whole cast of characters, including the Bag Man. He's a mysterious junk man who can magic trash into his rickety shopping trolley. Richard means cart, but it's fine. He's British. And according to the script also looks like a medieval saint. Yeah. So next we get to meet Harry's wife Lucinda and the two stepdaughters patience and prudence is that the full house set? It is indeed the full house fucking clock. Good job Jacob. Thank you John. So the three of them are a piano violin, cello trio and they're practicing for of course, the big Ball tonight, the charity ball put on by Harry called Stir Aid, which is also not a slur, right? So just so you know that they're like this model little family. They sing a song that's titled and so the family that plays together stays together. Oh, Richard. Not another song about incest. Um This is what Richard submitted in the first draft script. Thanks for nothing, Richard. I would have rather had the incest. Yeah, honestly. And so like right after this song, Lucinda gives them this advice. Bra is Simo. But girls, we're gonna have to be better than that tonight. And so patience. A little less strings, pizzicato and Prudence. Why don't you try and invert a turn at the climax? You've both got delightful instruments, girls handle them lovingly, step mom. Hello, Porn, Hub. Richard was really ahead of the curve on this one and, and through some of the most awkward exposition, quite literally ever, Harry tells the girls that he started Aid, which is a charity event apparently for prison reform because his first wife, Cinderella's mom, you know, Doris was killed in the electric chair after brutally butchering her ex lover who was a mobster named Julio Hoop. Also not a slur. Mhm. Julio apparently was flaunting his other women in front of Doris. And uh one night he brought home a tacky old broad and Doris lost her shit and quote, picked up a kitchen implement and scrambled their brains for them. Turns out it was just Julio's mother, not actually a hooker. So oopsie also, Harry never told Cinderella what happened to mom? She thinks mom died of consumption, literally, right? So finally we get introduced to a Cinderella and uh this is not dutiful put upon full of grace and charm. Disney Cinderella. This is spoiled rotten Valley Girl, rap and pop music, loving little pain in the ass. Cinderella. In response to Cinderella's bad attitude. The family sings, gag me with a spoon. I think I'd better have a lie down. Uh Yeah. The title is a reference to the Valley Girl is that was popularized by Frank Zappa's 1982 song, Valley Girl. And the song is Richard o'brien's hate letter to LYCRA pants wearing Valley Girls who lust after punk rockers. I personally enjoy like her pants wearing Valley Girls that Lust after punk rockers. Yeah. So this song is sung by Harry with the stepmom and stepdaughters being sympathetic and kindly to Cinderella and those poor misunderstood valley girls again, showing how loving and caring and rubbing stepmoms and sisters can be good job, Richard. Ok. Uh So afterwards the two stepdaughters try to have a perfectly lovely interaction with Cinderella and she is an absolute bitch to them. Uh And then he Cinderella, Harry sing a wistful ballad about how his little girl is all grown up and he just doesn't understand her rebellious little soul. It's titled Talk About Princess. Uh It is a pretty forgettable song, right? Because all of these songs aren't pretty forgettable. Aaron. Well, this one is particularly forgettable, but now it's the meat of the story. We get the San Fernando Valley rap, a gaggle of predatory young ladies with all their drum machines ticking along in, in unison. What the fuck is a drum machine? And why do all these girls have them? Is this code for Sibon or something? They sing a song. Richard describes as 11 brittle little gum chewing cuties and caps all chanting in unison, right? So this one sounds like it would remind me of like, hey Mickey, that Tony Basil song. Michelle nailed it though when she said that she thought it was the opening to bring it on. So, yeah. Meg Why am I singing this? Uh Because fuck you Jacob as though I don't fucking love the spotlight. Oh my God. Because we wiped out the, y now our names end with I, there's Janky Mindy. Barbie Dori Laurie Maury. That's I not. Why? Oh Why is Phony? I is cute and Cutie is what our parents should have aimed for. And names are what we Valley girls are famed for. Is this where cute is what we aim for. Like, got their band name. I, I, you know what I'm gonna, I'm gonna do some research after this and, and get back to you all about that. Uh So midway through this song, the, the batman shows up again and somehow grants Cinderella some wishes. It's, it's kind of unclear. Uh But the tone that Richard was setting with this rap song is uh very clear. So here you go. Uh They're so good. We could almost change the title of the movie to Jail. Bait Rock. But thank God we're feminists at heart. Oh Richard. So now Cindy and all of her value girlfriends are at the mall and they're gushing. You made me say gushing about the ball tonight because Cinderella's father, Harry has hired prince charming rock star, Chin, not a slur to play at the ball. And uh Cindy is fucking pissed that her dad didn't tell her, but she puts on her plastic face and fakes it to all of her friends. Then as soon as she's out of earshot sings a piercing anger ridden punk song. Called baby. I'm a time bomb and they're gonna get it at the midnight hour. So now's the time to run home to your mom because baby I'm a time bomb. I love that one. Yeah, it was great. It says knee slapper. Truly. Honestly, thank you John the bagman. Of course, here's this and we really the die is cast. Oh, well. Uh so now we get to meet the uh rock superstar himself. Uh Chins again, still not a slur and his band. The two twin brothers zips in buttons, real names. Oh God. Gollum and Global Bladder Gagger. Uh which doesn't seem that tasteful and might be a slur Richard bladder gagger. Sounds like what I'm gonna try in my hotel room after this. Honestly, it's literally cock sucker, right? Bladder gagger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So with that being said, if you'd like to be a bladder gagger, I'm in room whatever room I'm gonna be is his name Bladder Gagger or Global Bladder Dagger. There, there's two twins, one of them's named Gollum, one of them's named Global. Their their last name is so it's Gollum Bladder Dagger and Global Bladder Dagger, right? So if anybody, so if there's anybody here who would like to become a global bladder gagger, you can meet me in room whatever room I'm in or if you wanna be a Gollum bladder gagger, I'll be watching Lord of the Rings um in mine and I'm the asexuals one. So since everyone has different names. Chins, not a slur is actually just a stage name too again. Still not a slur. His real name is Howard, which is a slur. Well, Howard is a sensitive young boy. The hard rock and roller is just an act secretly. He's actually scared of girls. Du du du Howard. So then all of the Valley girls go to the venue claiming to be Harry's daughters so that they can meet the band and the management eventually figured it out because they didn't believe that Harry could get that much action in the bedroom. Seriously, security kicks them all out. Can you imagine being kicked out of something because you're not good in bed just like a general public place? Sorry, you cannot walk into the 7-Eleven because you're bad in the sack a little bit later, Cinderella shows up to try to meet Chins, but the guards have already dealt with 11 little Valley girl bitches today and feeling particularly a cabbie, they hand her over to the cops. Cinderella who is struggling with the security guards asks on what charge, what have I done to? Which the guard replies, they'll think of something. You know what Richard a cab is, right? So from there, we get one of the weirdest segments in the film where Cinderella is thrown in jail and it's a very sobering, dirty grungy jail, full of drug addicted hookers and, and hookers and drugs and drunk and low lives. And lives that are low and drunks and uh perverts. Yeah, pervert. The inmates and cops sing a song about how cruel the world is in the cycle of poverty and crime. So this whole bit is clearly a revision that's added into the first draft. Maybe it's intended to be like a wake up call for Cinderella but she seems to get like nothing out of it. And meanwhile, Harry and Lucinda are wracked with concern over their missing daughter. Lucinda sends the stepdaughters ahead to the ball while she waits with Harry at the ball. Patience and prudence stumble into none other than zips and buttons his chins, not a slur of bandmates. Uh And this is just like love at first sight. Bam Zoom turns out zips and buttons are classically trained musicians who were top of their class at the Boston Conservatory and the sisters are just huge fans. Yeah. So that happens. And finally Cinderella gets dropped off by the cops at home as soon as they realize that they accidentally arrested a rich white girl from the valley. I shit you not. But Cinderella fucking flips out because she's a spoiled little bitch. She's livid that daddy didn't tell her about the ball and that's why she got arrested and they don't care about her and she screams at dad and she screams at Lucinda, I'm sick of living in this house. You don't care about me either of you. And as for you Lucinda. You dainty lady. Goddamn bountiful. You're not my mother. You'll like never be my mother. My mother loves you. Me. No boots. The house down Mama Richard didn't really know where to go with this much. Like anybody who wouldn't really know where to go with this. And Harry cuts off into another fourth wall break because that's what you do when you don't know where you're going with this. He lets us know that Cinderella was grounded from going to the ball and they decide to leave the dog, which is now a character tower outside to stop her from going out top notch security system. I'm sure an 18 year old couldn't get past a single dog. And now we get one of those like everybody sings montages to move the plot along and it's titled It's Not The Plan. Yeah. So chance is being all mopy that he has to go on stage and be a big fake rock star. Cinderella is bitterly sitting at home flipping through the TV. And Harry and Lucinda use their verse to sing a speech about prison reform at the ball. So midway through, we have a break where the TV speaks directly to Cinderella. Basically saying like if she's sad, she should wish for things. It's kind of dumb. So Cinderella goes to the window and cries out for mommy and the weird bagman dude is like there creeping across the street and he sees her and wooly, wooly as it's not the plan. It's the execution wraps up. We see someone magically appearing in Cinderella's bedroom and who is it? Why? It's Cinderella's quote, very odd mother. It's Doris back from the dead and she's still trapped in the electric chair. Uh Cinderella, Cinderella fills doors in. It's like 10 years in the future and she's dead and she's her daughter all grown up. Cinderella also complains that Harry has forbidden her from going to the ball and Doris wanting to stick it to her. Ex-husband is having none of it. Cinderella will go to the ball and in a surprisingly self aware and fourth wall breaking fashion, Doris realizes immediately that as the very odd mother of a Cinderella, she must have the magical ability to grant her daughter's wishes. I mean, she doesn't, it's actually the bagman that's creepily watching from the window and like casting spells, but it, it really, it really doesn't matter. So Cinderella and Doris are going to the ball, but it isn't a Cinderella story without a costume, quick change. So Doris, but really the bagman turns Cinderella's dress into a sexy mini with high heels and a beret. She's like a comic strip robber complete with a black mask. So real tasteful for a prison reform charity event. I feel like these two plots lines aren't crossing over well, so to complete this ridiculousness, she turns the dog tower into a white Lamborghini Cota, which I'm sure Richard was delighted sounded a lot like the word coach and then the two race off to the ball, uh, while they're driving there, Doris gets absolutely hammered on a bottle of liquor and sings a seemingly derivative song called things that I hate. Uh, and this is literally my favorite things from the sound of music sung by a drunk bitch and her obnoxious valley girl daughter driving down the highway. There's some real winners in here including um mime troops and dance troops and films that are foreign. That's racist. So you're racist. Oh shit, John has been canceled live at R K O. You heard it here first folks. So yeah, like mom is shit faced and stumbling out of the car and into this ball where she makes a beeline for the bar and just as Cinderella walks in chants not a slur and his band kick into their hit song insatiable as the song goes, baby, I'm insatiable six times every day, seven days, every week, we hit the heights. That doesn't rhyme. I said that six times every day but all night right through the nights and then in the middle of this cock rocking song a moment, Cinderella locks eyes with chins. Not a slur. The world fades away. A hush falls over the room. The band stops playing and, and chants after reminding Cinderella that his name is not a slur launches into a solo rendition of the next song, Love Set the prisoner free Uh Yeah, Jesus Christ, guys, I'm cracking up. Uh Th this is the big swell in the movie where both Cinderella and her rock star Prince charm and have that sudden magical breakthrough in their lives all because they each spotted their one true love from across the room. Chin sings about how he's done pretending that his name is not a slur and being a big star. Uh Cinderella about how she's been so angry at the world and just so mean to her family and she sees her sisters canoodling with zips and buttons, her loving parents and her very odd mother uh is over being drunk in the corner and that's the toll at midnight. This is after all loosely, a Cinderella story except Cinderella didn't really overcome any odds other than she realized she was a bitch. And now it's time for obviously what comes after all of this, a high speed car chase in the Hollywood Hills. You all know it that octave fueled hit love on the four oh five. The band piled into their limo and Cinderella into her Lamborghini dog and rip through the Hollywood Hills hitting speeds of 200 MPH and at the toll of midnight, Cinderella's car explodes quote like that of a Victorian magicians, streamers, confetti and stars, et cetera and Tower who remembers a character comes running away with nothing more than some scuffed paws and Cinderella floats down over the valley like Mary Poppins leaving behind the shoe. This is literally what happened. Stop looking at us like we're crazy. He's got the shoe we're on formula bam. Cut to the next day, Howard, the sad rock star and zips and buttons are moping about in their limo. They all decide to go visit. Harry Rock's two stepdaughters. Both zips and buttons fall madly in love with patience and prudence the night before. Unfortunately, there's a band of Bimbos on the loose, don't you just hate it when there's a band of bimbos on the loose? I'm sorry, a band of what now? Bimbos, horny skanks, stepmoms in disguise, you know, Bimbos, there's also the competing pack of Valley Girls all looking for the band, you know, because they're whores so feminist, Richard and on top of it all, uh Cinderella's very odd. Mother Doris is still around and now she's calling the news trying to get famous as the mom of the teenage girl that the rock star chased through the Hollywood Hills last night, which actually sounds like super fucked up and creepy but definitely something T M Z would buy. Honestly, it's definitely something that I would buy. So then, and I, I can't, I really can't believe that I'm saying this, the roving packs of Valley girls and Bimbos both spot the band's limo and there's another high speed car chase where the Bimbos and Valley Girls and a news crew are all chasing after this poor band. Do you think Richard is using that as a metaphor for the price of fame that like with fame comes certain burdens like you have to pay the Bim Bimbo piper to fame. The you, you know, I I think uh someone said we need a second car chase Richard. All this cocaine won't spend itself. And the Valley Girls, the Bimbos, the news and the band all arrive at Cinderella's house along with the bagman and Doris. I, I feel like I'm playing fucking mad Libs right now. So Chin uh still not a slur doesn't even need the shoe. He just recognizes Cinderella straight away. Uh The fact that there's a shoe in here at all is just kind of unnecessary. Wait a minute, we'll get to the shoe. Finish the fucking story. Howard the rock star sees Cinderella and they are reunited. Yay and zips and buttons. Get together with the step sisters, patience and Prudence and Cinderella says, hello daddy, please forgive the way that I behaved yesterday. And for all the yesterdays before that, Lucinda, I'm like, sorry that I rejected your love and understanding and been such a hard nosed, bad mouthed bitch. Is it too late for me to call you mommy? This is um this is on one of those revision pages too. Folks. This was the better version of something that had previously been written. Yep. That wraps it up. Harry again, turns straight to the camera to make sure that we know all the couples lived happily ever after Cinderella married Chins, not a slur, she became a good girl and she told her family that she loved them and was sorry for being so mean a fairy tale story between a bitchy teenage valley girl with daddy issues and a bad boy rock star with a heart of gold who chases the teenager out of a venue and then shows up at her house after multiple dangerous high school speed car chases through the valley. Oh, yeah. And uh Doris shows up and the Bagman poofs her out of existence. Uh And there's a last song that's called Let There Be Love, which is uh I think low effort might be the best way to describe it. Yeah. Uh Yeah. Uh Also, there's this whole thing about the band's managers and a roadie and I mean, there's a bunch more bits that we haven't been able to include here. But um it is a fascinating read. The film ends with this. We see the bag man passing by somewhere. We pull away overhead shot and titles accompanied by an under chair, same as an overture, but it comes after. Thank you, Richard. Your audio engineer needed that the end. Yes. Uh So that's Cinderella Rock. The never before revealed unproduced Richard o'brien musical from 1988. Um There's no music as far as we're aware that was ever recorded for Cinderella Rock, but we had New York casts, musical director. And just insanely talented guy will Remmers put together his interpretation of the title song Cinderella Rock and we thought it would be fun to play that for everyone. Uh One diehard shock treatment fans rendition of what could have been Cinderella Rock. And then we could talk all about the nationwide talent hunt to find Cinderella, the international financial conspiracy that brought down the production L A Gear Corey Feldman and how the guy who adapted Sweet Home Alabama took that pile of mess and turned it into an even more baffling mess. Yes, I've got a problem. I sure have and not coincidentally, it's got the same name as my daughter, Cinderella. She's my problem. Cinderella Rock. Yeah, she's a, she's a last night she's down. So, all right. So we're back a big thank you to Will for writing that adaptation of Cinderella Rock. Uh I'm lying. That was not Will. That is cannon. It's totally cannon. You heard it here first? Will, didn't write it. That was, that was all. Richard Ryan sounds just like him. You know, it almost makes me wish this catastrophe of a movie had actually been made almost. Uh Well, let me tell you will created that song based on nothing but some half ass lyrics that Richard o'brien shitted out like 30 years ago. Um I just want to take a second and reflect on how fucking amazing that was. That song has been stuck in my head for literally weeks and I'm so glad you all got to finally hear it. We will of course, be posting the song online along with scans of the scripts and all the other research materials we've accumulated. Don't worry, we want you guys to all be able to dig into this shit as much as we have, right? So Richard wrote this script, he handed it over to these guys to Transworld Entertainment and at some point, there were at least one or two changes and addendums made by Richard. But I think it's pretty clear that this is not his best work. It's got multiple missing songs. The plot has some gaping holes and the entire bagman character doesn't really make any sense. Who cares? I'm transoral entertainment and this thing has to get made and what better way to promote a Cinderella story than with a Cinderella story. That's right. It's nationwide talent search time. So all you professional and amateur actors and singers and dancers between the ages of seven and 22 of course, show up at your local mall and you could be cast as Cinderella in the new hit musical from Rocky horror legend Richard o'brien Sitta Rock. I would rather not. Thank you. So when I first bought these scripts, the only other thing that I could find to do with this movie was a single poster promoting the national talent search. Uh This is real, actual art that was used to promote this movie. We did not make this poster up feet uh for free. And what I didn't know until I started digging was what these competitions. They actually happened. In the summer of 1988 Trans World had their producers touring the country and running a national talent search for the next Cinderella. We found almost 100 different newspaper articles from all over the country that all were announcing or promoting these competitions and reporting. The local winners in most places, girls would submit a tape or a head shot ahead of time and the field would be narrowed down to around 25 of them before the competition. Some of these competitions were held over two days. Some of them were in a single day, but the formula was pretty similar, roughly 45 2nd routines with the field narrowed from the initial 25 to around 12 of them for a final round of competition. One winner takes home the prize trip to L A and the audition for Cinderella, right? So where were they did? They actually do 20 of these competitions like I had to know. Uh so from the actual newspapers, we can identify 13 competitions that we absolutely know took place uh two in Tennessee, Iowa, New Jersey, Florida, Kansas, Utah, two in California, Texas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. And according to press releases, there's an additional three cities that they announced competitions in, but I can't find any records for them actually taking place. That's New York Phoenix in Boston. We can also place another competition from a story told in Alison Chains, the untold story, a biography of the band, surprise surprise Alison Chanes, apparently the girlfriend of singer Lane Staley placed second in a Cinderella Rock talent competition in Washington. So that's 17. I haven't found any evidence of any more and almost all of them are clustered in May and June of 1988. Some later reports say that there were only 18 cities. So it's possible that just some of them fell through or I just haven't found them yet. Each one of the competitions was sponsored locally by things like radio stations and modeling agencies. They were judged by radio DJ S and local celebrities along with like the creepy old producers from trans world entertainment, probably the biggest celebrity involved was listed in this newspaper. Ad Adrian Z, he was a guy who was in TJ Hooker apparently. But what's actually kind of interesting here is that last line that's on the ad win a pair of L A gear tennis shoes from our own Prince Charming. If the sneaker fits. Yeah. So this isn't a local sponsor. It's a national sponsor. In some of the earliest articles, they say that a national shoe company is going to be sponsoring the talent search. Uh By the time the actual search rolls around, they announced that L A Gear had gained the sponsorship. We even know how much L A Gear paid according to an article in Adweek, Cinderella Rock posters put the company's name front and center at shopping malls in virtually every major city in the county cost to L A Gear $25,000. So it sounds like a success for L A Gear. But was it a success for Cinderella Rock? Obviously not, the movie never got made. Keep up. Many of the competitions had moderate turnouts in Indiana. They extended the deadline because only 10 girls had even applied. Uh though it sounds like a lot of the applicants were just kind of lazy because 36 ended up applying 27 of which actually competed on the day. We actually knew who won this one. Uh This is her at age 17. Her name was Heather Ritchie. Congratulations, Heather. Yeah. She ended up running her own photography company. She quote her words, not ours is looking forward to capturing your bits. I too am looking forward to you capturing my bits. Gotta capture them all in Utah. There was very little press often just these kind of creepy classified ads. Yeah, those were weird. Uh But it's Utah as a whole. I mean, it sounds moderately successful. One of the producers for the film who was traveling around working as a judge for the competition claimed that quote thousands sent in applications nationwide. So, ok. And it did what they wanted. They got press if the film had continued to be made. Surely the talent search would have been an integral part of marketing, the film's eventual release. And as a kicker, they added a talent search into the next draft of the script. Yeah, they changed a lot of stuff in the script, doctored version. They uh removed the prison angle. The ball is now just a charity for the Grain Union. Uh because you know, Harry makes cookies. Uh also mom didn't kill anyone and go to the electric chair. She died in a motorcycle accident. Uh It's kind of a shame that there's a song called Love Set the Prisoner Free. That doesn't make much sense anyway, it's fine. Nobody will notice. Uh And the sisters and the stepmom are now like actually super mean to Cinderella. So that whole angle is completely ruined. Uh But they did rename Chins. They knew they knew that it wasn't appropriate. Uh They renamed him to I shit you not cockroach. Oh Even better. Well, I don't know about any of that boy stuff. What? Wait. So who won? Did, did someone actually get cast as Cinderella and then have her hopes dashed? Did they actually film any of it? Uh No. Uh From all of the research, I could only find reports of four winners, Carrie Young Janet Welner, Heather Ritchie and Taylor Mill. Uh I also found out some of the names of the girls who came in second place, but nobody cares. They came in second place uh and really that was kind of it. These competitions happened in the summer of 1988 Transworld went around partnering with radio stations and celebrities and ran these things at local malls, got a national sponsorship from L A Gear and then nothing almost see in October of 1988 there's another article published about Taylor Mills who won in Iowa. This kind of leaves open some questions. She won the competition in mid May, but this article came out in October and it says that next week she's going to Hollywood to audition Cinderella Rock along with the other winners. It also says there were 17 national winners total which matches the number of locations. We're pretty sure we can verify. And since it's one of the last published pieces about the competition, it seems the most reliable. But this leaves such an open gaping question. Did the girls that won actually go to Hollywood? Like what happened with them? Uh We don't know, we reached out to every single person we could find no response. Nobody seems to want to talk about poor Cinderella or they can't figure out how to get Facebook to accept messages. Either way we can't be sure what happened in Hollywood. What we do know is this thing never got made and the reason why it, it's a piece of fucking shit. You heard it too. I mean, come on guys. Uh now it was actually a casualty of one of the biggest banking scandals of all time. All right guys, step aside. It's time for my skills to shine. So in 1983 Transworld Entertainment was started as a video distribution company by Moist Diamont and Edward Sarlo. They had moderate success throughout the eighties and eventually started expanding from just distributing films and started also producing low to moderate budget genre titles like killer Clowns from outer space. They were funded primarily through credit Leon, a long established French Bank in the 19 eighties, they began lending huge amounts of money to the big Hollywood studios. It'll later be revealed why the man who did all this lending was Georges Vion head of European lending for credit. Leon. In 1986 Vigan went to so and Diamont and had the pair create a new company, Epic Productions. Diamont became CEO and chairman of Epic. In exchange, Epic received a $60 million line of credit from credit Leon to produce some films such as The Curse starring Will Wheaton. So in addition to setting up this deal, Vigo also led money to another studio called Empire. You know, they had a few successes including I don't know, troll go and reanimator. I don't know what those are. Hm Eventually this other studio Empire had accrued a mountain of debt it owed to credit Leone and it was seized by the bank. However, Vigan knew that if Empire failed regulators could force the bank to call in the other shaky loans that he had made to the Hollywood studios in effect, it would destroy the bank's entertainment business and probably end Vigan career. One of those shaky loans was of course, that $60 million he gave to Epic to make a Will Wheaton movie and Teen Witch. But that didn't stop George's Vigo. He doubled down and started playing an old fashioned shell game. Vigan went back to Sir Louis and Diamont and made a deal if they acquired the failing empire, he would extend their line of credit by another $140 million under the table. Most of the money would pay off Empire's old loans back to the bank. All of vampire's other creditors were told to go fuck themselves and stiffed. How did they get away with it? Because Vigan had reconstructed Epic. Epic was owned by a shell company in the Netherlands for Max, for Max's stock was owned by a Panamanian corporation. Root of the stars who owned root of the stars was only determined by bearer certificates carrying no names. Their certificates were secretly owned by Slo and Mont to whom credit Leon had just loaned $200 million. But on paper, Empire's creditors couldn't find out who held their debts. It's actually super clever. So um Yay banking, this structure was similar to what was being used by other bank officers to conceal bad loans at the Cannon Group and that's gonna be important later. So take notes you schmucks. What the fuck, bro. Spoilers just trying to help out. I know shit. Right. So where were we? 1987? 88? Right? Cinderella is starting to pick up steam, but just as the national talent search is going on, the final acquisition goes through an epic acquired empire in May of 1988. This led to several induction titles being delayed. Obviously, this included Cinderella Rock. But if that was the end of the story, Cinderella may have eventually seen the light of day, but it didn't you see this was just one of the many shell games that Vigo had been playing and the shit finally hit the fan when he backed the wrong horse in 1990 he backed Italian financier Giancarlo Perretti in a takeover of M G M to the tune of $1.25 billion. Perretti by all accounts was like a real sleazeball mobster scum doesn't even begin to describe him. He was loud, he was obnoxious, he was dishonest. He openly engaged in fraud, bribery, assault tons of other crimes. Yet somehow he still managed to circulate in some of the top financial circles of Europe. In 1989 he took over the Cannon Film group and tried to take over the film studio path. The French government had to step in and stop the acquisition because of his ties to the Italian mob. The Cannon group. Guess we know where Vigan learned his accounting tricks from, however, Peretti was completely unhinged and didn't hide his crimes at all. He started personally looting M G M. He fired most of the accounting staff. He appointed his 21 year old daughter to a senior financial post and he used company money to buy presents for a bunch of his girlfriends. M G M produced almost no movies in 1990. Meanwhile, over at Trans World in 1990 Dimon and Salou just figured out their company was on the ground floor of this pyramid scheme. So they quickly shifted Transworld to being just a holding company, meaning they would no longer produce films. Instead all the actual film distribution would be done by Vision P D G International, which Tama and Sarlo were made, significant shareholders of this basically stopped all in production films for good. And if Cinderella wasn't already dead before, it certainly was. Now in 91 credit, Leone finally had to acknowledge the mind bogglingly bad loans it had made to Peretti and just foreclosed on M G M. This spawned investigations in both the US and France into the bank. What they found was a huge web of financial crime, bribery fraud and money laundering. The writing was just on the wall and the House of Cards came tumbling down. It pretty much every Hollywood company that the bank had loaned money to just disappeared. This took so long that it wasn't until August of 1992 that credit Leon a foreclosed on Epic Productions and Transworld Entertainment and Diamont and Sarlo sued, they said that they had been deceived the whole time. So then the bank countersued for fraud, they sued their voyeur saying that he had hit all the bad deals. It was a fucking mess. Yeah. Eventually credit Leone paid off. Diamont and Salo Transworld Entertainment was rolled into Epic Productions and all of that was under the bank's control. However, this was only the start of credit Leone's financial problems because the massive Hollywood Mess had just costs the bank around $5 billion. This is just the tip of the iceberg that was about to shake the banking world to its core. You see, credit Leon had engaged in so many other bad loans and financial fraud, not just in Hollywood with insurance companies and other endeavors that to avoid financial disaster. The French government had to create a new state owned company called Consortium Ization or the CD R. They then moved all of the troubled debts and liabilities onto CD R and began the slow process of unwinding all of the debt, which took the better half of the nineties when all was said and done. It cost the French taxpayers almost €15 billion. Uh Yeah. So Peretti was found guilty of misuse of corporate funds and fraud. Uh but of course, never served a day in prison on account of how rich he was. Uh Vigo, who certainly uh accepted bribes and kickbacks for all of his lending uh was never charged with a crime on account of how rich he was. Uh and Diamont and Sir Louis went on to continue working in Hollywood on account of how rich they were. And that is the story of how one of the biggest banking scandals of all time robbed the world of a massive blockbuster hit Cinderella Rock. It was a casualty of greed and international financial crime and also being a shitty movie. So the last thing uh published about Cinderella Rock uh was in December of 1988 and January of 1989. Uh we see here that Corey Feldman has apparently signed on to play Prince Charming. Uh Not only that, apparently he's going to write and sing some songs for the film. Yeah. And Jerry Coker is now attached to wrote some episodes of growing pains in a show called Three You guys Naked from the Waist down which let me tell you is a rough Google image search. So you're welcome. I found the poster. It's really a shame that the world missed out on Corey Feldman. Butchering Richard o'brien songs. Did you know that Corey Feldman actually released a horrible music video like recently in February? Yeah. Back. This is another and then go to you better make you sting and that's our panel, both copies of the script, every newspaper article, all the research, documentation, all of our slides Corey Feldman's music video and every single thing we know about Cinderella Rock is live right now on rocky talkie podcast dot com. There were like a million things that we could not cover here. Like all the changes in the rewrite multiple characters that are just there songs that make no sense. A massive horrible dialogue. I highly recommend anyone who is interested in Richard o'brien or anything. You'll want to take a look. An absolutely massive. Thank you to Roy and everyone from R K O for inviting us to be a part of R K O K four. Thank you to Michelle for her amazing artwork that you got to see throughout the last hour. And a super special thanks to Willers for creating that amazing version of the Cinderella rock theme. Also a big shout out to Mad Men, Mike Tony Pizzo Ruth Fink Winter Sapiro, John Davies, Jean Chiari and countless others who took a look at the scripts and contributed to all of our research. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much to everyone for coming and make sure to tune into the Rocky Talkie podcast every week where we cover all the latest in Rocky horror news and research, incredibly stupid shit like this. We're going to keep digging on this one. There is still a ton to discover. So make sure to subscribe. We'll see you all next time. Bye, going to bed