This Day in Pop Culture for May 12

1967: Sonny & Cher Make a Terrible Movie

William Friedkin was an award-winning movie director who passed away in 2023. He is known for directing The French Connection and The Exorcist. However, his first picture, Good Times was a disaster. While not exactly “lost” (the whole movie can be found on YouTube), it is one that Cher probably wishes it was.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, Friedkin was a young documentary director who wanted to get into making dramatic movies. He was introduced to Sonny Bono and the two began looking through scripts in search of a movie. They landed on one idea from a new screenwriter whose idea was to have Sonny and Cher make a film about the couple making a film.

The film’s budget was set at $500,000 but ballooned to $800,000. The end result was a series of goofy skits set to music. In the movie, Sonny and Cher faced Mr. Mordicus (George Sanders), a big movie executive. Sonny would pitch different story ideas, and each were played out with music. The movie spoofed spy thrillers, westerns, Tarzan movies, etc.

While Good Times has its share of fans, the movie got terrible reviews. It lost $1,050,000, but some of the music was pretty fun and were featured on a soundtrack album. (Images: Wikipedia)

1995: ‘Crimson Tide’ is Released

Directed by Tony Scott, the submarine thriller, Crimson Tide starred Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. The story takes place during a time of political turmoil in the Russian Federation.

It features a standoff between an older commanding officer and a new executive officer and how their views are different about their current dilemma. Crimson Tide was nominated for three Academy Awards including Editing, Sound and Sound Editing. Hans Zimmer won a Grammy Award for the movie’s main theme. (Image: Hollywood Pictures)

1934: The Real Winnie-the-Pooh Passes Away

It was on this day in 1934 that a female black bear named Winnie at the London Zoo passed away at the age of 20. This is significant because she was a favorite critter of A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin. When Christopher received his own stuffed bear, he immediately wanted to call it Winnie (despite that it looked nothing like the black bear) and this friendship inspired Milne’s famous stories about a bear stuffed with fluff seen here.

2000: John Travolta’s Passion Project Disaster

L. R. Hubbard wasn’t just the Scientology founder; he also wrote science fiction stories. His 1982 novel, Battlefield Earth, was a particular favorite of actor John Travolta who had an interest in making it into motion picture. He contributed millions of his own money into the project which was picked up by independent Franchise Pictures. Travolta had expected to make a sequel since this first movie only covered the first half of the book.

The story takes place in 3000 A.D. where a young Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper) lives with a group of cave-dwellers in the Rocky Mountains. Drawn to find out about alien oppression, he leaves his home and gets captured by alien beings known as Psychlos. Travolta played the ruthless conqueror Terl. The movie also starred Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, Sabine Karsenti, Richard Tyson and Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston.

The movie premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre three days after the book’s 50th anniversary. The movie was panned by critics and has an average rating of just 3% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, it managed to make $29.7 million at the box office. However, the budget for the film was $44 million.