Diary of mad housewife experience

Alice Cooper co-founder and Hall Of Fame inductee Dennis Dunaway answers your questions!

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Remmy
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Diary of mad housewife experience

Post by Remmy » Fri Apr 02, 2021 6:39 am

Hi Dennis,

thanks for sharing your memories and opinions here, it's very enjoyable to read, and also it's very nice from you to do it.

I was wondering if you had some souvenirs to share on the filming of the movie "Diary of a mad housewife", other than the few factual fragments already available. (I did make a search on the forum and the web site).

I'm very curious about the reason of your (ACG) participation in the movie, what/who was at the origin of the idea ? Is this a similarity, a reference to Blow Up with the Yardbirds ? Were all the group members on the same opinion on being in the movie in this type of sequence (not a real role), and do you think it actually helped the group in its way to stardom ?

Thanks again Dennis, and best wishes

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Dreary
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Re: Diary of mad housewife experience

Post by Dreary » Fri Apr 02, 2021 5:45 pm

I believe the Director Richard Perry reached out to us because he wanted the scene to have a hip underground feel, although it's more likely that Joe and Shep reached out to them.
The film was well publicized, mostly because the title was rather intriguing for the times, and it did help validate Alice Cooper as an established band.
We weren't thrilled to find out that they had paid Mars Bonfire to provide the music (our scene would be the only music in the film.) We listened to a vinyl album and the only song we liked was "Born to be Wild" so we chose our second favorite "Ride With Me" and decided to play the required verse and chorus and then go into an improvised sound collage.
Blow Up was an influential film of the times but we weren't thinking about that when we did our scene. We just wanted to surprise everyone. Keep in mind that it was done in one take and even Perry didn't know what we were going to do. He only knew that we wanted tons of feathers.
Our raw footage was infinitely more outrageous than the final cut. I wish I could see that again.

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Re: Diary of mad housewife experience

Post by tuneylune » Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:22 am

Dreary wrote:
Fri Apr 02, 2021 5:45 pm
I believe the Director Richard Perry reached out to us because he wanted the scene to have a hip underground feel, although it's more likely that Joe and Shep reached out to them.
The film was well publicized, mostly because the title was rather intriguing for the times, and it did help validate Alice Cooper as an established band.
We weren't thrilled to find out that they had paid Mars Bonfire to provide the music (our scene would be the only music in the film.) We listened to a vinyl album and the only song we liked was "Born to be Wild" so we chose our second favorite "Ride With Me" and decided to play the required verse and chorus and then go into an improvised sound collage.
Blow Up was an influential film of the times but we weren't thinking about that when we did our scene. We just wanted to surprise everyone. Keep in mind that it was done in one take and even Perry didn't know what we were going to do. He only knew that we wanted tons of feathers.
Our raw footage was infinitely more outrageous than the final cut. I wish I could see that again.
Always like DOAMH. Finally got it on DVD and looking forward to listening to the commentary, especially concerning your scene, although You covered it extensively in Your book.
TL
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Re: Diary of mad housewife experience

Post by Babysquid » Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:57 pm

Hi Dennis do you know if there’s a full audio of your performance? If so do you have a copy and might it ever see the light of day?

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Re: Diary of mad housewife experience

Post by Dreary » Thu Mar 07, 2024 6:12 pm

Babysquid wrote:
Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:57 pm
Hi Dennis do you know if there’s a full audio of your performance? If so do you have a copy and might it ever see the light of day?
We saw the entire performance in the "rushes" (raw footage) and loved it. The song ended in a complete white out of feathers, and when that settled the cameras kept rolling for chatter amongst cast, crew, band and director.
A girl's white blouse had been dowsed in olive oil which made it quite revealing, and another extra had lost a contact lens in the ankle-deep feathers. That was the only screening I know of.

It's seems like somewhat of a Holy Grail of AC footage.

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