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You Are Here: Gangway :: Cast > Extras > The Extras: The Comprehensive Tome > 2. The Capsize
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| The Capsize
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By Paul Wilson
Lung-Sucking Couple are bowled over by Linda Stunt Double and John Wayne in a Bad Wig Stunt Double, while India Lady and Pert Blue Sequined Lady hang on. -- JR
The Black Lady in the Purple Dress who Gets the Plate Smashed On Her Back: She is seen moving about, perhaps with Lone Black Man (in stills they are seen seated together) in the distant background while the Captain lectures Linda Rogo on Poseidon. She is most notable in the capsize as the recipient of a flying dinner plate. The room is completely on its side, and people are piling up on the Egyptian-motif wall, and while some are splatting there, Black Lady, who is in a backless purple satin, sustains the white dinner plate which sails right into her shoulder blades and splits in two. This woman later becomes Lone Black Woman (see Post-Capsize Extras).
Aunt Joyce Lady/Pained-Faced Ponytail Gal: This woman is also all over the place prior to and during the capsize. She is seen waaaay in the distance in the establishing aerial ballroom shot, at a table on the riser just over from the Captain's Table. She wears a powder-blue and silver metallic striped pants-suit or gown, and has reddish-brown hair gathered into a ponytail in back. She is visible as a blur in the shot of Linarcos tailing the Captain out of the Salon. Later, during the tilty-siren sequences, she is seen at extreme lower left, grabbing onto the Holy Rail with a male partner wearing a blue party hat, in the shot favoring the Captain's table, with Rogo, Linda, Scott, India Lady, and so on. Even later, she is seen fleetingly with her hind end UP ON a table, twirling around quickly with a pained look again as the Marilyn Monroe Blonde (a.k.a. Grecian Curl Lady) whips the cloth from the table. I personally began calling her Aunt Joyce Lady for the simple reason that she resembled *MY* Aunt Joyce, but she may very well not resemble *YOUR* Aunt Joyce, so the alternate Pained-Face Ponytail-Gal acts as a more descriptive back-up...
The Couple That Do the Little Dance: These are a fun Capsize Couple [and one of JR's fave duos] we're all familiar with. They have a shot all to themselves, doing a little pirouette and falling downwards at the top of the capsize. The man is in a red party hat, holding onto the woman, and she is in a black sleeveless/backless high-neck gown, with a silver tassled necklace and a pert black chignon. SHE is holding onto one ot the decorative gold Horse/Cornacopia (Horseacopia) art pieces which flank the Poseidon statue on either side. They do a very nicely choreographed little tumble, and he disappears from frame, she gets lodged at the railing. HE appears again, as Skeptical Man with the Yellow Streamer around his Neck (see Post-Capsize Extras). [JR adds: There is a major Continuity Error with The Couple That Do the Little Dance! See Goofs and Other Things to Watch For.]
Tony Orlando Man: This one has been pegged by many of us, as he looks SO like Tony Orlando trying to Get a Grip at the top of the capsize. He lunges from screen- right and grabs hold of the electric keyboard, and remains there until several shots later when he and Nonnie nose-dive downwards and to the left of screen. He has a black curly perm, black moustache, and frilly-cuffed sleeves and a noticeable wristwatch on his left arm as he holds on.
Teal Sparkley-Topped Lady: Tony Orlando's apparent lady friend. She can be seen long-distance in the long shots of the Salon during the siren-tilty sequences, very far back and to left of center, in a white gown with a sleeveless teal sparkley bodice. She is seen clearly in the same medium shot as Tony Orlando Man grabbing the keyboard, falling backwards into amps and cymbals with a truly pained about-to-cry look of horror on her cafe. Her hand is also the one that appears on Tony's bottom in the later nose-dive keyboard shot, as they all tip forward prior to the Piano Falling...
John Cleese Piano Man: Early in the capsize, when the piano first falls against the stage bulkhead, we see two hapless victims landing on the wood paneling, a man and a woman. A spilt-second afterwards the piano comes down, the lid flapping, and catches them both in the abdomens. He shrieks and flails his arms upwards, and looks all the world like John Cleese in a vintage Monty Python skit, while the woman, a blonde, bets bomped in the head by his elbow.
Marilyn Monroe Piano Lady / The Blonde Who Gets Bomped in the Head by John Cleese's Elbow when the Piano falls on them both. May ALSO be the SAME WOMAN who pulls the cloth off the table in the medium shot of the Knot of Panicked Folks who strip the tables. Funny how she can get socked in the gut by a piano, then bounce back (literally!) and pull a cloth off a table...
Tree-Plunger Man: Self Explanatory. He is the one and only man who falls face-first into the Christmas Tree, the last shot of the ballroom before the cutaway to the ship on its side. The Lady with the Velvet Ribbon Around Her Neck, Dinosaur Man, and A Steward are also glimpsed in the background playing with tabletops and such.
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| The Fly-By's
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By Paul Wilson
Manny's Double: This man begins the series of rather cheap all-the-same shots commonly known as "Fly Bys." These were mere inserts of men and women falling sideways at a right angle, or, looking at one's screen, from top to bottom. They are used as easy cutaways between larger shots containing more action, many re-use the same exact people or are nearly the same take, and all feature the same unimaginative background of The Big Copper Urn set in a wall-trestle in one corner of the Salon set. Manny's Double is the first of these, who alleges to be Manny plummeting just after letting go of the Holy Rail as Belle calls after him repeatedly. This man, who is actually Sexy Sandy-Haired Sam Elliot-Like Moustached-Man, a.k.a. Handsome Moustached Man (see Dining Room Extras and Purser's Mob, Post-Capsize Extras) falls past and appears to be yelling "BURRRP," but later analysis suggest he MUST be saying "BELLE!" This same stunt man falls past again, this time in three-quarter view, in the shot JUST PRECEDING the Big Piano Tumble to the ceiling. He says "Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Fly-By Van Johnson Man: See Van Johnson Man, in the section Table Hangers.
Jack Jones/Roman Polanski Man: Another Fly-By, who passes by once, solo, and is sandwiched as an insert/break-up shot in between the Black Lady Who Gets the Plate Smashed on Her Back and the same shot again, only this time with a man falling into the shot. He has a head of thick black hair, and somehow bears a more than striking resemblance to 70's-era singer Jack Jones!
Magenta Fly-By Girl: This is a young woman in a sleeveless vivid magenta gown, who flies by twice, both times with the same man (Cheap! They did it a few times and just went with a couple takes of the same poeple!). She is first seen immediately after the exterior shot of the ship on its side, flying past (with one veiny arm extended and darl long hair flying) with a flailing dark-haired man; then again just after the floor-sliding shot of Red-Dressed Marilyn Quayle Lady. In this shot she faces us, her eyes tightly closed and mouth open, followed by the same flailing dark-haired man who was with the first time. Curiously, she is seen in one of the two shots of all the people splatting against the wall, falling into the shot and landing on a sideways tabletop (at the same time the Black Lady in the Purple Dress Who Gets the Plate Smashed on Her Back), a coffee cup nestling first in her Bust, then in her Spleen. Why they did not insert her Fly-By fall just before that "landing" is an interesting Editing Question that we will never know. As it is, her second Fly-By may be suggesting that Red-Dressed Marilyn Quayle Lady has just been launched from the floor after sliding, and landing on the tabletop, with only a subtle shift in dress-color as she does so...
Dancing Hands Lady: Another of the cheap Fly-Bys, she is a Blonde with her bare back to us, falling past at a right angle and down, but she has the distinction of fancifully poised mannequin hands, with fingers that have a life all their own. Her left hand is the one in question, which seems to both be mannequin-like AND strumming a harp as she plunges past. Dancing Hands Lady makes me laugh a lot, if not for her name alone... [...and makes JR giggle every time!] |
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| The Sliders
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By Paul Wilson
Red-Dressed Marilyn Quayle Lady: So named, by our Webmistress, for her resemblance to Dan's wife, she has also been known as Horse Mouthed Lady or Goofy Carol Burnett Howler Monkey Lady, and she is the most visible of the Floor Sliders. She has dark, pulled back hair, and a bright red sleeveless gown with rhinestones at the neck, and slides through chair legs and streamers just after the second Magneta Fly-By Couple. Again, in an odd editing twist, she can be observed PRIOR to her Floor-Sliding in a view of the stage / dance-floor area, with no chairs within a mile radius, sloppily falling into the shot just before a man cartwheels by. She is also visible in some stills, but not clearly in the film, falling into the base of the Christmas Tree as Tree-Plunger Man goes in. (See Goofs and Other Things to Watch For.)
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| The Table-Hangers
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By Paul Wilson
Van Johnson Man, a.k.a. Ruddy-Faced Man: This man is definitly a stuntperson [Orwin C. Harvey]. He is a Capsizer, a Fly-By, AND a Table-Hanger! He had a stocky look and a reddish-skin tone, and looks like, well, Van Johnson! His first sighting is a vague one, though his actions are well-known: he is the man clinging to Cousin Itt Lady, laying horizontally across two chairs at the top of the capsize. Scott and Linda of course steamroll right over them seconds later, knocking them (AND the chairs) completely out of frame.
 The Real Van Johnson
Pumping Iron Lady: This is the Stepford-esque reddish-brown haired woman in a long grey chiffon gown, hanging from a table with a look of excruciating pain on her be-grimed face, before she turns away and does a chin-up on the table. If this shot were looped, she would look like an Excercise Infomercial. In the first establishing long-shot of the table hangers, she is way in the back in front of the Christmas Tree. After her close-up she eventually falls, very uneventfully and with no scream, in the same long shot as Van Johnson Man.
Flowery Pants-Suit Lady, Pants-Suit Lady, Clown Lady: This woman is instantly known across the board in TPA Iconography as well, the infamous Table Hanger in the Yellow-Patterned Palazzo Pants-Suit. As a child I thought she was a Clown, or at least clown-like, and I still refer to her as "Clown Lady" with my oldest friends, but most folks have taken to Flowery Pants-Suit Lady. In recent studies, however, of the many stills available of this woman in various states of dangle, her outfit reveals what COULD be very large white daisies on a yellow-orange ground, but there appear to be many abstract angular patterns and lines as well, so I have taken to calling her just Pants-Suit Lady as of late.
She is a prominent Table Hanger, one of two females (the other being Pumping Iron Lady). She hangs with a Male Figure, who stuggles very convincingly in the medium shot of the two of them painfully trying to straddle the table's edge. She nearly gets a leg over, but not quite. Later, of course, she drops, and her Palazzos splay as she gracefully descends. Interestingly, in stills taken of the piano crashing down, she can be SEEN (!!!) struggling miserably on the riser-ledge, and the pants-suit is quite obvious. We generally see her legs and hind-end, and one would guess she perhaps survived the fall, at least a little, as she does appear to be moving. Perhaps next to Ernie Orsatti (the fellow who plays Susan's Date and plunges into the skylight), she is one of the most visible, best remembered victims, and is on just about everyone's list of Desirable Stunt People to meet or talk to in regard to The Poseidon Adventure. |
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| ...And the Rest
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| Vicki Lawrence Stripper Lady: Another personal favorite! Right up there with Lady in the Blue Dress, and it may even BE the same stuntwoman! She is the splay-legged Miss in the black-and-orange dress who plummets downward with a Vague Male JUST AFTER the piano-falling-to-the-ceiling shot. Her shot is broken into two parts, as she presents us with a vulgar crotch shot, which eventually gives way to a wonderful freeze-frame of her looking JUST like Vicki Lawrence in a silver Fright Wig, her bare arms waving in the air like a Stripper in a Burlesque Act. Though you can HEAR her scream, her mouth is closed as the woman is obviously concentrating on her stunt. The second part of her shot is the "landing," in which she wafts down like a Barbie Doll with said male and lands amongst the canopy and banners formerly hanging over the stage area.
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PoseidonAdventure.com All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owners. Excerpts used under U.S. Code : Title 17 : Section 107. Everything else, including design and graphics, Copyright © 1996-2011 Joyce A. Rogers. All rights reserved.
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