I'm Dave Hanson, alias Jack Hanson, number 16.
I'm Steve Carlson, alias Steve Hanson, number 17.
That makes me Jeff Carlson, alias number 18, Jeff Hanson.
I just found out the other day that they only did this in one shot.
- Did they really? - Yeah. This is a one-shot, one-take scene.
- Wow. - Denis Lemieux.
- What's he doing nowadays? - He's in Montreal, isn't he?
North of Montreal. Way north.
- How far north? - Way up there.
Jim Carr.
Actually, that's a cross-check. That's what you get when a goaltender is trying to...
- Explain the rules. - Exactly. What do they know?
Remember that interview I did and I hit the guy on the foot accidentally?
Trying to show him a slash and you really whacked him.
That's a hook.
- That's a hook. - That's a hook.
That's a butt-end. That's not a spear.
Go to the box, you know.
Two minutes by yourself, and you feel shame, you know.
- I never felt shame going to the box. - I did if they scored against us.
I never felt shame. They always had hot dogs, peanuts and Coke in there.
- Yeah, but they're throwing it at you. - That's true.
Guido Tenesi.
He's bald now, I hear.
There's the man we made.
- He was quite a poet. - Who? Braden?
- Yeah. - Was he?
- Yeah. - He never talked to me.
He didn't like you.
Well. That's all right.
- Lindsay didn't like me. - Well, nobody liked you.
She wouldn't talk to me.
Maybe we just fooled around too much.
What was Nancy Dowd's nickname?
- Betty Boop. - Betty Boop.
- Was that the original organ up there? - Yes.
I think he skates pretty well right there.
Even though he couldn't skate at all.
His hair even looks a little green there, doesn't it?
That's Johnny Gofton, who actually played with us for the Johnstown Jets.
The story we've got about him is that we went in to Philadelphia and played...
St Patrick's Day.
- Yeah. And he dyed his hair green. - With food dye.
Halfway through the game, when he started sweating,
he looked like the transformation of the Incredible Hulk. It ran all down his face.
- There's Paul Newman. - Yeah. He can skate well.
Was it true Ontkean was an all-American with the University of New Hampshire?
Yes.
- I don't think he was all-American. - I think he was the leading scorer.
There's some hockey chicks.
Knitting during the game. Come on!
Gracie Head.
There's Bruce Boudreau, Toronto Maple Leafs, right?
Yes.
He looks pretty good there. Good pass.
You gotta keep your head up.
I wonder what he said.
Remember that scene where the guys, Campigatto and, was that Billy Reed?
- Yeah. - They had to do that seven, eight times.
Campi was so bruised he could hardly walk after.
- Cheers. - Think she's got that stinkin' root beer?
I don't know. She's enjoying it. Could be that grape or orange.
Good save. Good save.
Guido's really working hard. Look.
He wants to make sure he doesn't get out of the camera.
Boy, that brings back memories.
Another minus for Guido.
That must have been before we shaved him.
Yeah, he has a lot of his hair, doesn't he?
It's make-up.
There's the man - Strother Martin.
Boy, is he funny. He is so funny.
He made me laugh the whole movie just watching him.
Did they take this being drunk when we played Syracuse in the semifinals?
The semifinals. It was to get seated for a higher position in the play-offs.
- Remember that? - Right.
And neither team wanted to win, so we drank...
We went to the bar before the game.
We still ended up winning.
We never won in Syracuse in five years and then we beat 'em.
Then the fans went after the referee and beat him up.
I've got that suit still in my closet.
- Something to be proud of, Dave. - Very fashionable!
- Did you ever have to do a fashion show? - I did one when I played in Hartford.
- Did you really? - Yes.
I'm gonna open this robe and wiggle my dick.
- You will not. - Yes, I am, Joe.
Didn't wiggle nothing, though. Allan Nicholls did all the wiggling.
- Is he wearing a wig? - I didn't think it was too bad.
- No, it's not too bad. - It looks great.
Looks like fake sideburns.
I think he's got fake teeth.
There you can see it.
He was portrayed after Bill Wilson, the sportscaster in Johnstown
who wore a wig, didn't he?
Yes, he did.
There's downtown Johnstown, Pa, where we actually played.
The steel mills are all closed right now.
I got a leather jacket just like that, too.
I know you do. I remember that.
In fact, I'm wearing that in the picture you got on your website.
Original music.
Now, was that the team's doctor Bernie McQuillan's dog in there?
I'm pretty sure it was, yeah.
He looks like Beethoven.
Trivia question: What's the name of the dog?
That's a toughie. Ruby.
- Don't worry about it. The new boys... - "The new boys."
I've got some equipment I'd like to sell. Skate sharpener, massage table, Jacuzzi.
"Jacuzzi."
Actually, our general manager was just like him.
During play-offs he wouldn't buy no more tape,
so we had to tape our ankles and wrists with that...
- Black electrical tape. - That stuff with tar falling off it.
Now the movie gets exciting. About time. They should've fast-forwarded to this.
Look. Is that our folks there?
The old train station in Johnstown.
Who are you?
- You were good in that one. - Thank you. I can do it again.
"Who are you?"
Did they have to write that down for you, too, somewhere?
It was written on the side of the Coke machine.
That machine took a beating. Broke the crap out of it.
Steve, if you only knew it was 50 cents instead of a quarter.
- It didn't take Canadian money. - Look, the Coke machine. The same one.
The old Hendler lounge.
- That doesn't exist any more. - They tore that hotel down.
I still have that coat. Do you guys have your coats?
- Yes. - Do you have that coat?
I got the patch. I don't have the coat.
And the story with the toys. Remember we used to play?
Dave lived on the third floor, we lived on the second floor, like the landlord.
We moved all the furniture out of Dave's apartment and set up some racecar sets.
On Sundays when the bars were closed, we had parties over there.
Raced our cars. You always would break mine so you could win.
Now here's a false statement.
They're too dumb to play with themselves.
That's not true. We could. He didn't know us that well.
This is one of the funniest things he ever did.
Eddie Shore sends me this guy that's a terrible masturbator.
He would get deliberate penalties so he could get into the penalty box by himself.
Look at the expression on his face.
Every time I see him, God rest his soul, but every time I see him I laugh.
The trainer there. The guy at the...
Who's with him? Was that Houser?
- He was Billy on All My Children, a pimp. - How do you know?
- Cos I watched it. - I didn't think you watched soap operas.
- Billy Clyde, wasn't he? - Dave told me that a long time ago!
- That's the Hendler Hotel there, isn't it? - Yes.
- Spent a few days in that thing. - A few nights, too.
Made 'em a lot of money, didn't we? Couldn't even get a free drink.
- Did you ever meet Jennifer Warren? - No. I don't remember meeting her.
Me, neither.
Yeah, I don't even remember seeing her on the set at all.
They kept her away from good-looking guys like us.
She wanted the hat trick.
Now, there's a fashion statement by Paul.
We've gotta bring those clothes back.
That was kind of the whole deal back when we were playing
about how the mills were getting shut down too in real life.
- Yes, it was. - They closed down the following year.
They closed a bunch of factories, but the carmakers kept going.
I think it just folded up last week, last month.
- What are you gonna do? - I'm gonna come back to you.
Yeah, right, Jack.
- The old iron lung. - I love the bus rides.
Remember Cliff? On the map our bus trips should only be eight hours,
but it always took us 12 cos he'd get lost.
The time we played in Lewiston, Maine,
we ended up in Boston airport stuck in a tunnel and we couldn't move the bus.
We had to take all the equipment off, let air out the tyres.
Figure that out - going from Lewiston, Maine to Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
we ended up in Boston airport.
Had a little detour.
We'd have little bets on how long it would take for Cliff to get lost.
Think they're tonguing?
They couldn't find a girl for the longest time willing to have the scene with Guido.
I know.
Boy, I don't miss those bus trips. What was the longest one?
- 24 hours. - St-Georges, Quebec.
We were gone for a week and a half, two weeks, hit the east coast.
Here we come.
How come I was first?
- They're fuckin' horrible-Iookin'. - No, we're good-looking.
There's Cliff. A bus driver in real life.
- Is he still around? - Yes, he's still driving.
People don't realise in real life
the movie is based on the three Carlson brothers and Killer Hanson,
who in real life played for the Johnstown Jets.
In 1974 we won the championship. '74/'75.
Then they couldn't find real actors that skated as well as we did,
- and as good-looking as we were. - Definitely.
So they asked us to do the film.
We did a couple of readings and they offered us the job to do Slap Shot.
Remember Nancy Dowd, who was Ned Dowd's sister? Ned played with us.
- Right. - She followed us around half the season.
She started writing the story about us and when she left, Ned would send her tapes,
so she wrote the whole movie.
Then when Universal cast it, they got Paul.
And she's the one that convinced them to use us.
- Didn't they have trials in... - LA.
Yeah. Nick Nolte and... Who was his brother in Rich Man, Poor Man?
The other actor who broke his leg in the skating practice?
Donny Most from Happy Days supposedly tried out for a part.
Yeah, I remember the first time Paul came to my apartment.
I was having a pre-game nap there
and we still didn't know we were going to be in the movie.
Yeah. They were checking out apartments to do some scenes in.
Knocked on my door, I opened the door and he's standing a step down.
I'm looking at him and he says "I'm Paul Newman."
And I'm thinking to myself "Yeah, right!"
I says "Really?" And he says "Yeah." I says "Well, what do you want?"
He says "We wanna look at the apartment because we wanna figure out the set."
I says "Come in." He says "I've got some guys with me. They're gonna look at it."
"Do you mind if I turn the TV on and watch the race?"
And what am I gonna say? No?
He says "Have you got any beer?" I says "Yeah."
He sat down and watched the race. I went back to bed and the guys looked around.
Now this scene is in Colgate College, right?
Yeah.
In western New York.
There again Nancy's writing about Bill Goldthorpe, who was a player in real life.
He had a big, blond Afro and was notoriously tough.
They were afraid if they brought him in, he'd go after Newman.
- Yeah. He was pretty unpredictable. - So they let Ned Dowd do that character.
There we go.
You remember how she came up with the idea of putting the foil on?
I don't remember.
All I remember is taping our hands up as boxers, then we switched to golf gloves.
- But how did we come up with the foil? - I think the foil was just her own idea.
They outlawed tape on the hands, then what we did was bought golf gloves.
Yeah, leather golf gloves.
Got 'em wet, then put 'em on the radiators to get 'em hard as rocks when they dried,
and made sure we fought the first shift because once we sweated they'd go soft,
so we'd make sure before that puck hit the ice our gloves were off.
Boy, you were dirty then.
A lot of people don't understand what the foil was for. We get a lot of questions.
Then once we rub it in their face a little bit, you can feel a roughness to it.
Then, of course, we tell 'em that we keep it to wrap our leftovers in.
Or our baked potatoes.
- Get out there and stick 'em/ - Fuck 'em/
I do swear. I didn't remember that.
Watch. Newman starts laughing here a little bit.
Not yet.
Later.
See that little smirk on his face?
We were good there.
I thought that put us over the edge there. The Academy was in our back pocket.
I couldn't believe we didn't get it for that.
Yeah, that's Colgate College.
What a dive of a rink that was.
That's where, I think, Mike Milbury played college hockey there.
- Colgate? - Yeah.
It was cold in that place. We filmed there all day. Was it cold!
It kept the beer cold.
- Where are we? - We're not on the bench. Watch this.
- Did he just walk past us? - No. We're not on the bench.
- We're playing. - We didn't play yet.
I know we didn't.
Whoops!
Where were we?
Boy, I've been through that situation in real hockey.
"We're not folding", then all of a sudden the trainer would come in,
grab all the equipment and lock it up.
I think I have that T-shirt, too, still.
You haven't unpacked since you moved to Pittsburgh, so don't worry.
Guido was like that.
He was always in love with himself.
Who did he marry? Leslie?
- Has he got hearts on his shorts? - Wears them through the whole movie.
I think we went on a winning streak,
so the idea was he wasn't gonna change his shorts until we lost.
- He reversed them once in a while. - Did he?
You have to.
Now, whose room is that?
- That's a hotel room. - I know that, but whose room is it?
Everyone's in there playing cards.
Well, it's Newman's. He's the one walking round in his underwear.
I used to love watching Brad Sullivan eat. He'd chew his food 10 to 15 times.
It was like he was actually counting the exact amount of chews he'd have.
Docken is in his robe.
Maybe it's Docken's room. Maybe him and the coach had a room together.
Another fashion statement.
- This is where you break the car. - No, you watch.
- The car is broken. - No, it's not.
- Cos it's not working. - Cos you're losing. It's in your hand.
- Be quiet. Listen. - You're lying.
See? Look.
- Put it down. - Yeah. See?
It wasn't working cos you never put it down.
- See, you're mad I was winning. - No. It doesn't work.
- There, you broke it. - Did you see the piece come off?
I broke this one.
I think they were our real racetracks that they took out of the room.
I think we got a woody.
- They shot this on a set in the armoury. - No. It was up in LA.
- I think they did it... - No, they shot this in LA.
Cos I remember they were talking about doing it in the armoury in Johnstown
and nobody could go.
- What do you think, Dave? - It's all make-up.
- Are those real? - I don't know.
Touch 'em. See what happens.
She went on to become a pretty big actress.
I saw her in... I think she was in Close Encounters
with Richard Dreyfuss.
She's in a close encounter right now, too.
I met the guy the other day who...
Remember Newman had 100 cases of Coors beer brought in
- cos they didn't sell Coors? - Yes.
I met the guy that brought it in for him.
- Really? - Yeah.
I wonder if they rubbed ice, or if it was cold in there, or if they rubbed ice cubes.
- What are you talkin' about? - Look how red her nose is.
I think it probably was cold in there.
- Is that Bernie McQuillan, the little kid? - I have no idea.
- Cos that's Anne McQuillan. - I think it was.
Look at the medallion he's got on.
It's amazing how this movie is ahead of its time.
How the mill folded, how hockey expanded to Florida, Texas and LA.
It's unbelievable how everyone predicted everything the way it was gonna turn out.
Some of the goalies' wives were dykes.
You don't think our goalies' wives were dykes?
We were always on the road. We don't know.
I pretended I got injured, I stayed home. I should know.
"My groin hurts. Could you rub it?"
- Notice how tiny this goaltender was. - Yeah. His head's just above the bar.
When he chased Newman into the penalty box,
he was so small he couldn't jump over the boards, so they had to build a ramp.
The last three or four steps you watch him run up this ramp to get over the boards.
That's the way it really was. You don't see that any more.
- You do in baseball, basketball. - Yeah, but there they just slap each other.
Hit 'em with their damn purse.
That's gotta hurt. That's gotta hurt.
- He wouldn't dare pull anything like that... - "On Johnny."
Those are actually linesmen in our league. Gary and Elmer Shawley.
Look at the patches on his shoulders. Those are big patches on those jerseys.
Right here is where he had to run up the ramp and jump over.
- The other guy is Elmer something. - Elmer Shawley.
- That was father and son? - Yeah.
Downtown beautiful Johnstown.
It still hasn't changed probably.
- See any loogans? - What year is that?
- That's... What is that? GTO? - Yeah. Gas, Tyre and Oil.
Woolworth's. I don't think they have that there any more.
- There's the dog. - That saved Johnstown from the flood.
He woke up the city when the flood waters were coming.
- He drowned, didn't he? - No. He's still there.
Well, actually, he's in a cage now. He kept running away.
I think the real story why they put him in a cage is a youth hockey team came in
and they hit him with their hockey sticks and chipped him and broke him a little bit,
so now he's protected.
So if another flood comes, how does he get out the cage? He got a key?
Well, they got a cat now that does it.
Well, fuck him.
- She had a foul mouth. - Yeah, she was dirty.
- Now, is this... - It's Ray's or Johnny's or something.
Johnny's.
That was a typical scene for us: Go practice, then watch the soaps at the bar.
Now, the rumour was Brad Sullivan, who was Mo in the movie,
they say he was a reborn Christian.
- Is that a fact? - I heard that, too.
But he was like Strother. He was great to watch. He was funny.
Constantly.
Newman took three sips out of that beer so far and...
It's got a big head on it.
I bet you that's not his voice.
There's something you don't see any more: Union suits for long underwear,
with the flaps in the back that used to button.
Yeah.
How did they get the camera into that little bathroom? That was really little.
In fact, we had our stick rack in there, didn't we?
It's still there. The sticks are on the back wall.
That was it - a stall and a sink.
The amazing technology of Hollywood.
There's Paul again.
Look at the skid marks in the ice from the sled that they were using for the camera.
Pushing it up and down the ice.
Here comes the worst line in the movie.
Take that sentence back/
I've heard that so many times where a player says "Take that sentence back."
- That really pisses the other guy off. - I'd be mad, too.
There's our head coach in real life. Dick Roberge.
He grabs him.
Someone was telling me that Dick just retired last year down to Carolina.
This is pretty cool.
Here goes Jeff's pet brick right behind his head.
Watch for it. He's got a pet brick. See it?
Every day he'd walk that to the rink. He'd pull it along behind him.
- He'd have it sit up... - Roll over.
Back then they had that pet-rock scam going on,
so I figured "Let's try the pet brick." It never took off though.
Now this scene here is an improv that we did.
Crossing ourselves like that. They didn't expect that.
George Roy Hill really loved that.
30 seconds of the greatest hockey ever captured on film.
What's really amazing is that the refs never caught us and called a penalty.
We were so sly.
It's all clean here. Look at that. Nothing wrong with that.
- That was a good, clean slash. - He had a helmet on.
- A good, clean trip. - It was a dive.
They're basically all dives. You're right, Steve.
- Look, a perfect hit. - We went for the puck.
- That's Teddy McCaskill. - We got the puck. Clean hit.
Good hip check. You don't see that no more.
Then the goalie just gets in your way. You went after him.
- I tripped. - And your stick broke, too.
- This is good, see? No one follows me. - He was sneaking up behind you.
He yelled "Take that sentence back."
- Ref got in your way. - That's right. He stuck his leg out.
The puck's in the corner. We're just digging for it.
- Watch. We come out with the puck. - You have it. Good call.
- Way to go. - Ain't our fault he's a little runt.
- Accidents. Lots of accidents. - Look at the last guy on the bench.
- These guys have gotta pay attention. - Last guy on the bench was a cocky man.
The last man...
I made sure I got the hard rubber on the heel of the stick and I hit him on the head.
He had about 15-20 knots on his head after we got done filming this thing.
- Didn't he put a helmet on at the end? - They obviously didn't use that scene.
This is where Johnny Gofton... This is where you actually hit the guy.
Yeah.
- Right here. - Bang!
Broke his nose in real life.
It was an accident. That's real hockey.
He was the kind of player that would yap at you and never fought you.
He was a real professional player that we played against
and, like you said, he was a player that would yap, yap, yap and then run away.
- So, finally, I accidentally, accidentally... - It was an accident.
I accidentally really hit him.
See, our fans love us.
The guy with the hard hat. I've never seen him there.
Look at all the people with the black-rimmed glasses. We set a trend.
- They followed us into the locker room. - Hockey chicks. We love hockey chicks.
I don't remember his office being that blue. Did they paint that?
I think they painted it.
- Where were we in this scene? - We weren't in there.
I've never seen this happen.
I think we were back home playing with our racecars.
I think she was the figure-skating pro in Johnstown.
- Was she? - Yeah.
- Look at Guido dancing. - What a dork.
Looks like he's got diaper rash.
He's got that leather suit on.
The chicks like that.
There's the guy with his hat.
- Look at Jeff. - As bad as you.
Didn't we drink Stroh's and Schmidt's of Philadelphia, and Iron City, right?
Yeah.
But I think for the movie all they had were Stroh's and Schmidt's, wasn't it?
Now, is this where we're going into Ligonier and the...
Yeah. When we were gonna do the butt scene... or change the buses.
And Ligonier sued Universal Studios
because we were gonna shock the crew and George Roy Hill, play a trick on 'em.
We were all on the bus and we streaked, except Newman.
We were setting it up. It was gonna be late at night,
and we thought there'd only be our regular camera crew.
So we wanted to pull a big joke on everybody and got everybody on our bus -
cos all those ladies there are the wives and the volunteers from Johnstown.
So we were gonna pull a big joke on 'em and come running out all bare-ass naked.
When we come running out,
unbeknownst to us, they advertised in the paper they were shooting,
and the whole town of Ligonier was there and we were running round naked.
They wanted to arrest us. They tried to sue Universal, who brought in lawyers.
A lot of elephants running around.
In this scene here we were supposed to grab the guy and pound his head,
when all of a sudden you go and grab the tree.
And you start hitting him on the head with the tree.
They charged Universal for that. They had to buy it.
- Holding a tree. - And drops him.
That's a good look.
That was shot at the Holiday Inn in Indiana, where Jimmy Stewart's from.
Did you get those lines down, Dave, so you can do a speech now?
Now this is Utica, New York. Yeah.
In here this is where in real life
we did go up into the stands cos that guy threw, what, beer on you?
No. He threw a glass of ice at me.
A glass of ice, against the Mohawk Valley Comets in Utica, New York.
We all went up into the stands. You and Steve and Jack got arrested.
Right.
- Took to the police station. - Where were you?
- I was getting the meal money together. - Thanks.
Actually, we had to collect all the meal money from the guys
so we could bail you out of the jail.
This is where we suckered 'em in warm-ups.
We were playing Buffalo in the play-offs, best of three,
and we beat them in our rink, they beat us in their rink,
and we jumped 'em in warm-ups for the third and final game.
They went off the ice, they didn't wanna play, they forfeited a game.
- We won the series. - We won the series 2-1.
Went on to win the championship against Binghamton. Beat 'em four straight.
- There's our favourite sparkle twins. - There's hockey chicks.
This scene took about three and a half days. This referee, what was his name?
I don't know, but he couldn't skate from the red line to the blue line.
- He couldn't turn. - He'd turn and fall down.
Then finally we got him where he could turn, then he couldn't skate.
- Right there he'd fall. - He'd run into Steve.
I've seen him do a lot of work after Slap Shot. I've seen him do some work.
But that was funny, remember? Every time he'd turn, he'd fall.
So finally they had to cut the scene, take him turning, take one stride, they cut it,
and then one step away from you, he came right up to you.
This scene here, the bus driver was only supposed to be hitting the door.
- Cos that's a fake panel. - Look at the dents above the bus.
We said "No, Walt. Swing the hammer and get the whole bus", so he goes "OK."
He starts hitting the bus. They had to buy him a whole new bus.
All they had to do before was buy a door. Now they had to buy him a whole bus.
This was when we were going into Hyannisport
to play the Long Island Cougars.
The Long Island Ducks, I think it was.
And we decided to moon everybody.
But in this part here, remember when they wanted us to moon?
We said the only way we'd do it was if they gave us 50 bucks extra.
So they gave it to us.
Then we spent about an hour trying to find Jeff.
And they found out he fell asleep under the seats on the bus we were filming it on.
I was tired.
It was hard work.
We were shooting at three in the morning.
This is the scene we did up in Ligonier.
Where we streaked.
All the fans were on the driver's side across the street.
Which one are you here, Dave?
I didn't do this one.
- I didn't do this. - I did. I needed 50 bucks.
This is downtown Ligonier.
- I know the last one for sure. - We're on a school bus.
I don't think Jean Tetreault would be happy with me saying that.
I know which one I am.
You're the one with the smile, patting your butt.
I'm wiping.
What rink is this?
- That must have been Syracuse. - No, Syracuse has a wall on one end.
I think that other rink was Syracuse and this is Utica.
Yeah, I think you're right.
- This is not Utica. - Maybe this is Syracuse.
- Who knows? - Who cares?
- Yes. Finally I score one. - Remember that scene, that shot?
We had to take that 15 times cos you couldn't hit the net.
You guys couldn't either.
Especially since we weren't the ones shooting.
- There we go. - That made me mad.
Then we had to do this scene probably about 15 times.
By the time we were done, we had bloody hands just from getting over the glass.
The people in the stands said "That make-up looks real on your hands."
And actually it was real blood.
These guys that I was fighting with, they took this thing really seriously.
They were just ragging me and I'm trying to tell them "Relax there, big guy."
I actually had to throw a bunch of them off my back. They were piling on me.
- Right there. - Yeah. They're ragging us.
This was... We were actually in jail here, weren't we?
- Yeah. This is Utica, the one with the jail. - You were with us.
No. They grabbed Guido thinking I was Guido, and they put him in jail with you.
You tore the handle off at that restaurant.
- No, that's Syracuse. - That was Syracuse. OK.
- Yeah, we won't talk about that one. - Why not?
It's irrelevant to this movie.
Irrelevant!
Look at them old shoulder pads there.
Now they wear shoulder pads the size of football-player pads.
Those were actually big in those days.
Look at the patches, Steve. See how big they are.
That's when, in Utica, the chairs in the arena weren't nailed down.
They had folding chairs and they used to throw them on the ice at us all the time.
Then one time someone threw a live chicken out on the ice during the game,
and the thing was squawking around all over and the refs were chasing it.
Amazing how they did that stuff.
There's the police station in Johnstown.
Here's "a little memento".
The boys and I want you to have this as a little memento.
Swoosie Kurtz. She's a terrific actress.
She's come a long way.
I see Lindsay Crouse a lot on stuff, too.
I've seen her on Law & Order as a lawyer.
She's done well for herself.
- Hockey-wise, we didn't like much of this. - No, we didn't like the portrayal.
- All the fake jewellery and the fur coats. - And the drinking all the time.
Not to knock the wives, but they all got together two hours before game time,
and they sat down and had a couple of pops.
- Many nights, three, four in the morning. - God.
After Cliff, the bus driver, would get us lost.
We were supposed to be home by 12, not four.
Then we'd go over to Brownie's afterwards, the bar.
- Have a good meal. - Good cheeseburger, steak sandwiches.
The Aces is where I had my wedding reception at.
You went all out, didn't you!
We got married right after we did the film, and Newman sent me a wire
that says he would've been there, but he was racing that night or that day.
Did he send you a gift?
He kind of did cos we were going to Hawaii on our honeymoon
and he said he'd have a party for us.
Instead of doing that, we had a party when we went to LA to do the voice-overs.
At his Beverly Hills place.
- Look at that town. - There's a beautiful scene.
Where did the cowboy hats come from?
No idea.
- Sure makes us look good though. - I liked you in that cowboy hat.
We should have had white hats though.
Now, there's Paul's daughter from his first wife.
Susan.
- She was a sweetheart. - A very nice girl.
I should give her a call while I'm out here. I'll do it right now. Susan.
Ron Docken married that girl behind the counter, our goaltender.
Ever notice in this film there was never any snow?
In Johnstown you get snow. Lots.
When did we shoot that? In April, May, June?
Maybe that's why they called it Charlestown.
They don't get snow in Charlestown.
Paul says that this movie is the movie he's always had the most fun ever doing,
of all the films he's done.
- And the film critic... Who were they? - Siskel and Ebert.
- When they were on Johnny Carson. - No, Letterman.
They asked them if there was any film they ever made a mistake on,
a film they gave a two-thumbs down that they ever made a mistake on,
and Ebert said Slap Shot.
- Isn't there a picture of you guys there? - There is. I'm trying to spot that.
Pete Stemkowski right there. I remember he had that one.
- Right there. - On the left there, the three of yous.
Wasn't there an eyeglass place in Johnstown, when you guys came to town,
that made up those safety glasses for you to wear
and then wanted to have you guys promote their glasses?
No. We had those when we were in Minnesota Fighting Saints' camp.
- Is that right? - Yeah.
- Right there, over his shoulder, is that... - No. It was below his shoulder.
Off to the side, that's you, Jeff.
I think Mo turned our trainer into a pimp with all that talk.
- The actual radio station in Johnstown. - Yeah. WJNL.
- That's what it was? - Is that right, Steve? WJNL or WJAC?
WJAC.
This is actually true in real life when we were playing in Marquette, Michigan.
Our coach put a bounty on Ernie Dupont. Was it Ernie Dupont?
Ernie Dupont from the Green Bay Bobcats.
Anyone that knocks him down or fights him, he gave 'em 50 bucks or 25 bucks.
50 bucks.
The whole friggin' team went after him.
We were fortunate that we started the game and he started also.
My brother Jack went after him.
That's where they got it from.
After the two years we played in Johnstown, we went our separate ways.
Jeff, remember the year you and I were together in Hampton and it folded?
- Yeah. - So I drove you back to Johnstown.
- Where did you go from there? Phoenix? - Phoenix, Arizona, yeah.
- I stayed in Johnstown with Ed Hoke. - You should have come with me.
I wish I would've because I signed on with Ed Hoke,
and he wanted to pay me $50 for every fight I got into.
Like a fool, I turned him down cos I was too honourable.
- "I'll fight. I don't need to be paid." - Did you get any fights?
I was making calls at the time, I didn't wanna be back in Johnstown,
so I made a phone call out to Phoenix and they knew that we'd done the movie.
Of course the movie was out.
"Yeah, come on out", so I went out there. They just hired me basically for publicity.
The first game they were drawing about 3-4,000 people.
- They handed out the nose-and-glasses. - That's your first game?
7,000 people there. I ended up playing there and had a halfway decent season,
but I sat after that damn game signing noses for about five hours.
I remember going to Dallas after the film came out. I was playing with Kansas City.
They hated me down there anyhow, even before the movie.
And I had the same thing happen to me.
I'm doing warm-ups and there was always a section yelling at me. I ignored 'em.
Finally I looked up and the entire section had glasses and noses on.
I just laughed and they laughed, so we all had a good time.
One other time when I was playing in Phoenix,
I got a nice big bottle of expensive Scotch sent to me after the game.
I asked the trainer and he said an old guy gave it to him.
I says "Oh, boy, what's going on now?"
So I walked out the locker room and there's Strother Martin and his wife.
He gave me the Scotch and he says
"Jeff, grab a couple of your buddies. We're gonna go out and have dinner."
So I grabbed my friends and we went out to dinner. It was really nice.
- See those blues? - That's how my apartment looked.
That was how our apartment looked on the second floor,
except we didn't have the archway in the kitchen.
- Remember that time I baked that cake? - And we used it for a doorstop.
Stuck a fork in it, you couldn't pull it out.
- You used it for a doorstop? - We did.
I couldn't bake.
In my bedroom I had pictures like that, except they were all of naked women.
- Pictures of you. - Naked women and comic-book heroes.
This is like real life in Johnstown.
They had the police dogs for the games, trying to get the other team out of the city.
That was Steve Mendillo's brother there. Remember when he was in?
They must be baseball players - look at how they hit.
There's the helmet again. What's going on?
- Expecting a building to fall down? - Electricians or something.
In real life the organ's on the far side of the rink.
He sure got up there quick.
- Boys from Syracuse. - Some good hockey players there, boy.
- Good line. - Yeah.
- Dunlop, you suck cock. - All I can get.
Remember when we had to show McCracken how to stick-fight.
- Yeah. - He had no idea.
We had to show him how to turn the blade over, and how you try to stick 'em.
There's a carnival-like atmosphere.
- I like that: "Carnival atmosphere." - He was great. He did a great job.
There's your chicken.
Weren't we in Marquette, Michigan, just starting off...
and they dropped a bowling ball over the edge?
- No. Really? - Yeah. Put a big divot in the ice.
Someone dropped a bowling ball over the corner, upstairs.
- I was probably lookin' at somethin' else. - Yeah. The goal.
Here's a question. Watch. Neither one of us are on the ice.
- Who does he pass to? - You.
Watch.
Steve.
- Where did you come from? - We switch quick.
- Braden took the centre. - I got to assist.
You're not on the ice any more.
We pulled a goalie.
- You're not on the ice any more. - There's a brawl. I got the hell off.
There's the guy in the helmet again.
- And now you're on the bench. - We changed.
There goes Killer.
I remember where Nancy got this scene from.
- Remember George Swarbrick? - Yes.
He played for, I think, Erie.
A tough old-timer in the game that I should have respected. I was a rookie.
I got out, run him. I go and I drop my gloves to go after him,
and all he does is take his stick and puts it right in my face.
He says "You wanna come any closer, come on. You're gonna eat beaver food."
So I just learned something there.
A lot of your older gentlemen started doing that.
Cos they didn't need to fight.
Because that's how it happened to you when you got older. Those young pups!
But now we do this hockey stuff we're doing, I'm gonna do it.
Son, you want some beaver food? You hungry?
- He used to drive a big Thunderbird. - That's it. That was his car.
I think Daddy bought it for him.
That was Guido.
Remember when we used to go up to Lewiston, Maine,
and his parents would come down with all these baked goods and pies,
and we'd steal 'em, eat 'em all before he got home and he'd be mad at us?
We had some good times on that bus, didn't we? Remember?
When we used to go up to Cape Cod and everybody'd go in the candle factory.
Bring all their candles back, then we'd stop for lunch
and then you, me and Steve would sit there and tape all the candles to the cars.
We snuck out while everybody was in the restaurant. They were Guido's candles.
No, they were everybody's.
And then tape 'em to all the posts on the beds and then light 'em up.
They came out and they thought the bus was on fire.
It looked like a Shaolin temple of some sort.
We'd go to Lewiston, Maine and that shoe factory had a pair of shoes for a penny.
Well, you talked earlier about that trip to Syracuse when I got thrown in jail.
That was on that Lewiston, Maine trip when we were coming back,
so I bought Dexter shoes.
Like you said, you bought one pair and got a second pair for a penny.
So I had these really neat, cool-looking shoes that I thought were just great,
and, coming from Lewiston, nobody down where we lived would have them.
We played in Syracuse that night and we had a brawl in Syracuse in a bar after.
- We walk out, something happened... - I remember what, but continue.
- The police grabbed me, threw me in jail. - I was with you.
So the next morning when they're getting ready to take me before the judge,
they throw me in the drunk tank and I'm all hungover and I'm looking down,
and all of a sudden I start looking at people's feet.
There was about six people in there with them shoes on.
I took them shoes and I threw them away. I says "No way!"
What year was that GTO?
I don't know. A '66?
It's a nice goat, though.
It's the local yokel who had it.
- Anita. Anita what? - McCambridge.
Your son looks like a fag to me. You'd better get married again,
cos he'll have somebody's cock in his mouth before you know it.
- That's my favourite line. - This one here?
Yeah.
Remember we were told, when they were screening this,
that some of the movie executives wanted to have that line cut out?
They thought it was too gross. I guess the women executives wanted to keep it in.
Really?
Can you imagine Dave playing this part?
I could've done this pretty well.
You would've messed it up.
We'd still be shooting.
He would've had cue cards behind his head.
That's what I needed.
Yeah. "Old-time hockey."
This is the scene where Newman pulled a joke going right up past the house.
He kept going right past this shot here.
That's when we stood in the back with all the trash cans
and made noises like he'd crashed. We rolled a wheel down the driveway.
George Roy Hill went as white as a ghost, nearly dropped dead from a heart attack.
He didn't think it was very funny. He wanted to fire all of us,
except when we told him it was Newman's idea.
Is that Sasquatch?
They saved a lot of money on wardrobe for Newman.
Boy, I bet that leather stunk after a while, huh?
After wearing it for three months.
- I'm tits-up after this game... - That was one of our good sayings.
They're even bell-bottoms.
I tell ya, we were stylin'.
The scary thing about it is the style's coming back.
There are the dogs, there for every game. That's a fact.
Every visiting team had to be escorted out of the rink with dogs in Johnstown.
The washer and dryer in the locker room.
There's the tub.
The coach.
I hated coming out onto the ice with that step. That was one of the tallest steps.
- They still got that? - Yup. They sure do.
Nothing's changed.
- They haven't improved the arena? - No. It's still clean. I mean, it's clean.
But it's still the same.
- That was a quick warm-up. - Don't need it.
There's an old Western Hockey Leaguer, Connie Madigan. He was a tough guy.
- From the old Eastern League. - No, the Western League.
Someone was just asking me about him, too.
There's another one. Indian Joe Nolan of Utica.
- He was banned for life, wasn't he? - Yeah. He just passed away not long ago.
He was banned for life from hockey.
Mark Bousquet. Remember, Jeff? He used to play with the Philadelphia Firebirds.
- We had that big brawl against them. - Steve and I were suspended.
- We were up in the press box. - Right. John Perpich started the fight.
And Bousquet and Ray Schultz jumped you, so Steve and I ran down the steps,
jumped over the glass, got in and started javelin-throwing hockey sticks at the guys
to try to get 'em off you.
The last gentleman was Blake Ball, another old-timer. A tough boy.
All those guys were tough boys at the end.
- Except Ned. - Except this guy.
What was Ned's old saying? His fan club meets in a phone booth.
- What band is that? - Johnstown High School.
Why are you taking the face-off, Jeff?
I'm fighting Ogie in the end and I should be... Yeah, I know.
Cos I played better than you.
Dave in the bar that night...
London, Ontario. We walk into the bar and there was a little ten-year-old boy,
and he goes "I'll teach you, you little prick."
- And Dave said "What did you say?" - So he repeats it again.
Watch my acting here. Watch how I go down. Look at that.
- That's good acting. - That's Academy material there.
This scene here, Joe Nolan hadn't been on skates for years, chases down...
- Al Nicholls. - They slam into the boards.
Both of his groins tear out. He rips both of his groins.
From that point on, all he does is sit with a big tub of ice in between his legs.
We'd say "What you doing?" "I'm icing my groins down", as he's pounding beers.
Look at the old-time nets with the steel in the middle. Did you see that?
Mark Howe slid into it and the thing jammed right up his back.
- And they changed it. - His backside.
Seriously injured.
- There's me getting hit. Why am I there? - Watch. I get crushed, too.
That's old-time hockey for them.
Remember that scene there? They were so concerned Paul was gonna get hurt,
that Ned kept telling 'em "Listen, I can crash him, I'll never touch him."
But they still put a double in.
- Was that him? - That was Paul.
I remember them talking about it.
That's the best he's looked, right here.
This is one of the better parts of the movie with Strother Martin.
I remember him getting ready to shoot it. He was running up and down the hallway.
He did it perfect every time and we had to do the scene about 10, 15 times
because everyone would just be laughing in the locker room when he came in.
- Jeff, you don't even have your foil on. - None of us do.
We're not playing old-time hockey.
I noticed that right away.
- That's the best. - Yeah, it's funny.
The guy there, Danny Belisle,
went on to coach in the National Hockey League, didn't he? No, scout.
And then for years to scout with the Detroit Red Wings.
But he said after they got done shooting that scene, his shoulder was so bruised
he had to go for physical therapy cos that's where Newman kept hitting him.
This reminds me of what you were talking about.
It's similar to when we won that play-off series against the Buffalo Norsemen.
Remember we started that brawl in warm-up,
and the one guy actually jumped over the boards and ran up into the stands
to get out from being on the ice,
and the Johnstown fans picked him up and threw him back on the ice.
Michael Ontkean must be European. He's on the bench. Not getting involved in it.
Also reminds me - seeing Woody, the stick boy, out there -
of when we had to orchestrate that brawl
so he could run out and grab the other team's sticks and throw 'em on our bench
because we didn't have sticks to finish the season.
He stole the other team's sticks away from 'em.
In this scene here, remember they had to bring in a big, fat, figure-skating instructor
to help choreograph this scene for him.
What a thing to say, Dave. A big, fat choreographer.
That's what I remember.
Of course, I had my glasses on. Everything was doubled in size.
The Hanson-brother glasses, yeah.
See? Paul keeps hitting him in his shoulder.
Same shoulder.
- I didn't know he was a lefty. - How about that?
Danny's lying there with his shoulder all messed up.
Good punch, bro.
I'd like to know how he got his underwear off with his jockstrap cup on top.
It's a one-piece underwear. He gets his underwear off, but his jock is still on.
That's a tough question. That's a trivia question.
I'd like to see the inside story on this.
He was a magician with the puck. I guess he was a magician with his underwear.
Right here.
Unless he rips it off. Tearaway underwear.
You've heard of edible underwear, haven't you?
- Well, he could have ate it then. - He ate himself.
- How'd he do that? - I don't know. Hang on now.
Notice, Jeff? That's what we were talking about.
The guy that handed him the trophy is the public-address announcer.
Remember that time we had that big brawl going?
You were fighting Gilles Villemure, who had a head as big as André the Giant's.
At least.
He was trying to hit you and you grabbed the guy's microphone.
Yup. I invented rap music.
You hit him in the head with the microphone and the PA system's going...
Then you dented the microphone, and Johnny Mitchell, our GM,
like Strother Martin, sends you a bill to buy him a new mike.
You had to pay for it.
I wonder what he's up to.
- Who? - Villemure.
- Gilles Villemure. - He's in Birmingham. He's a carpenter.
- With his head? - Yeah. Pounds nails with it.
My favourite film was showing on the theatre there: Meatballs.
That is cool, though. They forced her to do that.
What parade was this? Was this the Veterans Day Parade?
- No, we did this parade ourselves. - No, they had a parade.
- No. - Sure they did.
This parade was made for us.
They announced that we were gonna film and do it all and we did it.
- Really? - Yeah. This is no other thing.
I must have been at another parade.
I like that name.
- Minnesota Night Hawks? - Yeah.
But now it's the Vancouver Chiefs.
Vancouver Chiefs. That's where we shot. Not Minnesota. We went to Vancouver.
- His hand's all bandaged up. - Which one was that, right or left?
That was his right.
That's why he was sore on his left, he hurt his right.
Hitting the shoulder pad.
Look at his glasses, Ontkean's.
They're his wife's.
Great actor - Strother Martin. God rest his soul.
Yeah. Jennifer Warren.
- Where's our credits? - Yeah, where are we?
- We're coming up, I think. - We're on the top of the list.
Here we come. Ready?
- There we are. - Look who's first again.
Great actors. God rest their souls.
Matthew Cowles? Who was that? Was he Billy?
Yes.
Emmet Walsh. He was good.
Is that it? Any more?
- You sure? - What a great movie.
- I thought Dave was good in this. - I think we all...
Are we gonna win Academy Awards for the second one?
Cos I've started writing my speech.
I've got "Thanks" so far.
There's a lot of politics in this world of acting, Hollywood.
There's fan favourites, political favourites.
If Universal learn their lesson,
they will push us to get on the stage to accept our award.
- They would be smart to put us out there. - We're stylin'!
The thing is they'd be smart to put us out there because we've got class.
- It might be all second but we have some. - Yeah, we've got some.
Thank you.
- Let's all give us a clap. - Yeah, let's give us a clap.
Beautiful. A little more, a little more. Thank you. Thank you.