This
might seem like a bit of a strange question to open a blog entry, but
how many of you have a plan of escape if a fire were to break out at
your home or your workplace?
If
a fire were to break out, and you found yourself trapped inside a
burning building, would you know what to do in order to get out
alive?
By
all accounts, every household should have at least one smoke detector
somewhere inside (preferably closest to the sleeping areas of the
home), and every household should have at least two exit plans.
Whether you leave out the front door, the back door, or busting
through a window and climbing out, if the building is on fire, get
out!
The
same thing applies to your workplace as well. I can only speak for
my own workplace, but we have a definite plan in place to get all of
the customers and employees out of the building safely. There's at
least two dozen emergency exits located within the store that I work
at, and my store regularly does safety checks on the dozens of fire
extinguishers that are located throughout each area. I've even been
at the store when the fire alarm accidentally got pulled, and we were
forced to evacuate the store. Everybody in the store left in a quick
fashion, and we all met up at our designated spot. Needless to say,
if a fire ever did break out in the store, I would probably have a
very good chance of surviving.
Of
course, this is also a store that is built in a fairly open area and
is only one story.
Picture
this scenario. Imagine being trapped inside of an office in a
high-rise building, or a suite in a 40-story hotel. If a fire were
to break out somewhere in that building, would you know what to do in
order to get out of there alive?
It
would not be much of a problem if you happened to be on a floor that
was below the source of the blaze. All you would have to do is head
towards the closest stairwell and run as fast as you can down to the
nearest exit below. Being above the fire poses a whole new set of
problems, as you're more or less trapped.
In
a lot of cases, it would be easiest to run up the stairs to the roof
and just stay up there until the fire is put out. But if that's not
an option, the most important thing that you should probably do is
stay calm, and try to keep a straight head about it all. Mind you,
if you're actually in a situation where the building that you're in
is ablaze...well, let's face it...you'll instantly go into panic mode
regardless.
Of
course, there are some things that you must never do if you expect to
survive being trapped in a burning building. Stand near a water
source and keep dousing yourself with water. This might buy you some
time until firefighters can reach you. And, do NOT use any elevators
to get out of the building. Otherwise, you might end up like these
toasty warm people...
If
that image seems a bit familiar, it's because it's a screenshot of
today's Monday Matinee subject...and it's connected to my opening
spiel about what to do if you're trapped in a high-rise building
while it is burning down.
Today's
topic? The 1974 disaster film, “The Towering Inferno”, directed
by Irwin Allen.
The
movie was released on December 14, 1974 and was a co-production
between Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. It was also
a movie that took much of its inspiration from two novels - “The
Tower” by Richard Martin Stern (which I have not read), and “The
Glass Inferno” by Thomas M. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson (which I
HAVE read, and highly recommend).
The
film is set in San Francisco, California, where the dedication
ceremony for The Glass Tower is set to take place. The high-rise is
a massive office building, complete with a restaurant/dance hall on
the 135th floor, and measuring at 1,800 feet in height is
the tallest building in the world.
(Or
at least it was at the time that the film was shot...the CN Tower
would be fifteen feet taller when it opened to the general public in
1976.)
Now,
the building was supposed to be at the height of quality and luxury,
and as the partygoers arrived in full force to celebrate the grand
opening of the building, none of them were aware that in order to
complete the building, a lot of corners were cut...particularly with
the electrical system.
So,
when the exterior lights of The Glass Tower were switched on as part
of the opening ceremonies, the action overloads the circuits, which
causes a fire to break out on the eighty-first floor of the building.
Thanks to the highly flammable materials located throughout the
building (as well as people lacking common sense, as the people in
that elevator in the image above showed), the fire quickly spreads
between floors, and put the lives of thousands of people above the
fire at risk.
In
order to make the film as believable as possible, the film boasted a
star-studded cast, some of them being real Hollywood legends. Among
the cast were...
Steve
McQueen (San Francisco Fire Chief Michael O'Hallorhan)
Paul
Newman (Architect Doug Roberts)
William
Holden (Builder James Duncan)
Faye
Dunaway (Susan Franklin, engaged to Roberts)
Fred
Astaire (Harlee Claiborne)
Jennifer
Jones (Lisolette Mueller)
Richard
Chamberlain (Electrical Engineer Roger Simmons)
Susan
Blakely (Patty Duncan Simmons, daughter of Duncan)
Robert
Wagner (Public Relations Chief Dan Bigelow)
O.J.
Simpson (Chief Security Officer Harry Jernigan)
(Kind
of weird how O.J. Simpson played a security officer given everything
that happened two decades after this film was shot, huh?)
I
will say that for 1974 standards, this film had some fantastic
special effects. Watching the film almost 40 years after it was
made, it still looks incredibly crisp and clean. And, the film ended
up winning three Academy Awards – Best Cinematography, Best Film
Editing, and Best Original Song.
(In
the case of Best Original Song, the song was “We May Never Love
Like This Again”, which was performed by Maureen McGovern. It
wasn't the first disaster film she provided music for either...two
years earlier, she sang the theme for “The Poseidon Adventure”.)
I've
actually got loads more trivia for this film as well...but if you
expect me to reveal the ending for this film...well, I'm
unfortunately unable to because I never reveal endings. All that I
will say is that not all of the main characters of the film make it
out alive. I'll show you a couple of examples, but not all of them.
I really want you all to watch this movie for yourselves because it
really is fantastic.
Here's
what I can tell you...
01
– Apparently this was one film in which William Holden, Steve
McQueen, and Paul Newman all wanted top billing! William Holden was
eventually refused top billing, and settled for being the third name
listed in the credits, but with there being a stalemate between the
other two, the decision was made to have both names at the top of the
movie poster going diagonally, so that depending on the direction in
which you looked at the poster, both men would get top billing. Kind
of a petty argument if you ask me, but whatever.
02
– The movie was actually the inspiration behind the 1976 song
“Disco Inferno” by the Trammps.
03
– If the woman jumping out of the window after she catches on fire
looks familiar, she is actress Susan Flannery, who went on to star as
Stephanie Forrester on “The Bold and the Beautiful” from
1987-2012.
04
– This was Jennifer Jones' last appearance in a motion picture.
Her character was paired up with Fred Astaire's character, and they
danced together in the scenes that took place at the Promenade Room.
Her performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
05
– The principal photography of the movie was completed on September
11, 1974. This is a rather eerie fact, given that twenty-seven years
later, many people who were in the World Trade Center in New York
City were faced with the same frightening situation that the people
in the film experienced.
06
– Steve McQueen refused to give any interviews while he was on the
set. In contrast, Paul Newman simply requested not to be
“surprised”.
07
– Director Irwin Allen employed some rather unconventional methods
when it came to nailing the perfect shot. He actually fired a gun
into the ceiling in order to get the reaction shot of several people
screaming in shock!
08
– Both Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were paid the same exact
salary - $1.5 million plus 7.5% of all box office profits (which must
have made both men very, very rich, given that it made $140 million
total!)
09
– Speaking of sharing, did you know that Steve McQueen insisted
that he and Paul Newman had the same amount of lines of dialogue in
the script? Wow...McQueen kind of came across as a male diva here!
10
– Several actors who appeared in “The Poseidon Adventure” also
made cameo roles in “The Towering Inferno”. From water to fire
in just two years! Kind of makes you wonder what gluttons for
punishment these actors were!
11
– Jennifer Jones was not the only actress considered for the role
of Lisolette. Olivia de Haviland was offered the part first, but she
declined. But de Haviland would later appear in the box office bomb,
“The Swarm”.
12
– Believe it or not, a real fire broke out during the filming, and
Paul Newman found himself assisting the real firefighters in putting
the blaze out!
13
– Paul Newman also did the majority of his own stuntwork, as did
Steve McQueen.
14
– There were 57 sets used during the course of the film. By the
time filming ended in late 1974, only eight remained intact. The
rest were destroyed by fire or water damage.
15
– The scenic elevator that is seen in the film? It's actually one
of two that could be found at San Francisco's Hyatt Regency hotel.
16
– When the film was released in 1974, the First Interstate Tower in
Los Angeles, California was completed. Fourteen years later, a fire
would destroy five of the middle floors at the building. The Los
Angeles Herald actually did a feature on the fire, comparing the real
fire to the fictional Glass House building in “The Towering
Inferno”. Fortunately, only one person was killed in the Los
Angeles fire, as compared to dozens in “The Towering Inferno”.
17
– Paul Newman's son, Scott, had a role in the film as a
firefighter.
18
– Recognize the young boy that Lisolette tries to help during the
film? That would be then-fourteen year old Mike
Lookinland...otherwise known as Bobby from “The Brady Bunch”.
19
– Faye Dunaway's role was originally offered to both Katharine Ross
and Natalie Wood.
20
– Here's another interesting fact about Faye Dunaway, as told from
the perspective of stuntman Ernie Orsatti. Apparently, Faye Dunaway
was not exactly the most reliable of actresses, often showing up late
for filming, or even skipping days of filming altogether. It wasn't
until William Holden reportedly threatened Faye to shape up her act
that she began to make her scheduled call times.
21
– A fire broke out in a Manteca, California movie theatre while the
film was showing! One of the few things that survived the blaze was
the movie poster!
22
– John Williams composed the entire score for the movie.
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