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Meter Girls
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”You can’t make a feature-length musical on Super-8 film!” exclaimed one of our opening night guests in 1998. But that is exactly what we had done. This is the feel-good mod hooker musical of the year, inspired by the “three girls” films of the 50s and 60s.

 

Young and innocent Lorraine Willis leaves her smalltown home and runs away to the big city in search of fame and fortune -- and Mr. Right. What she finds along the way are two call girls, Myrna Beavers and Trish Vanderplop, who end up being her best friends and roommates. They show her the tricks of the trade and together they take on all the fellas in the big city. Lorraine transforms herself from country mouse to glamorous city girl, all while  trying to steer clear of the wrath of their wicked pimp Mrs. Schnitzel, to become the most profitable “meter girl” in town.

 

I love the midcentury “three girls” movies, what with their groovy clothes and mod apartments, and decided this would be my foray into that world. I teamed up with Jilly Idle, Uncle Alice and Tony Pinizzotto to write a bunch of original songs (with titles like “You Gave Me the Clap”) that the cast would perform. We started shooting in July of 1997 in sweltering heat, and wrapped by shooting pickups for the same scene in November as a light snow was falling on the girls in their sleeveless polyester finery. This was our most ambitious project to date, and it received a lot of love from our audiences.

 

We played a string of sold-out shows at Beat Kitchen in Chicago, returning for several short runs. We received a bunch of press (including a blurb from Roger Ebert, which literally made my day -- I still keep a printout of it above my desk), and even wound up being profiled on PBS’ “Wild Chicago.” Every once in a while, if you’re lucky, you might find a VHS of this floating around.

 

1998, color, Super-8 film, 105 min.

Click on thumbnails below to start slideshow of behind-the-scenes photos!

Cast

JANET HURLEY

LINDA LARSON

CHRISTINE BOUCHARD

UNCLE ALICE

GABRIELLE SANALITRO

JERRY NUNN

stevie

DAWN LORRAINE

TONY PINIZZOTTO

CARRIE D’WAAY

 

JILLY IDLE

ERIK LARSON

TONY PINIZZOTTO

 

Lorraine Willis

Myrna Beavers

Trish Vanderplop

Naomi Baker

Mrs. Schnitzel

Gig

Edna Willis

Midge

Viener Schnitzel/Dr. Dirk

Cece Horné

 

Music

Writer/Director/Editor

Producer

WaTch A Musical CLIp!

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