do U know of stories of 'extras' on the set of Purple Rain, the 'famous' people and the non famous?

MAGNOLI We had over 900 extras who came to the set every day excited. They gave the whole scene a tremendous amount of realism. And we didn’t know it at the time, but those images had a tremendous amount of influence on the direction that MTV took.

(2) INT. CLUB (1ST AVE. ST. BAR) -- NIGHT

The MECCA! The last stop for a band
before national fame.

The HUGE cavernous HALL is PACKED!
PEOPLE are DANCING like MAD! VIDEO
SCREENS with WILD GRAPHICS hang
suspended from the ceilings. Beautiful
WAITRESSES criss-cross the floor in a
frenzy.

PRINCE is CENTER-STAGE -- LIPS caressing
the mike, black, lustrous hair shining,
eyes dancing -- SINGING "Let's Get
Crazy" as the CROWD pulsates beneath the
LASER LIGHTS.

Meeting Prince on the Set of Purple Rain, 1983

Me and my sister “Maggie” on our first day as extras in Purple Rain, 1983. My car was filmed too, right in front of First Ave, because most of the extras did not own cars.

There were only a few extras on the set that day and it was really exciting! It was cold out and they let the girls wear coats but the guys couldn’t (I think it was supposed to be summer in the scene). They gave everyone cigarettes to smoke to provide a plausible reason for the “smoke” that was visible whenever anyone exhaled in the frigid air.

JAMES FRENCH the Cabbie

(3) EXT. STREETS #1 -- NIGHT

A TAXI pulls UP with a SCREECH. VANITY
slouches in the backseat. Black boots,
black skin-tight pants, and a mane of
thick, black hair presents a beautiful
and imposing figure. Her eyes are
large and dark -- her look open and
ripe. She knows what she's got, and
doesn't make any excuses for it -- but
the fact is she's scared as hell,
possessing a vulnerability that
surprises her by its suddenness. An
expensive gold chain is fastened on one
boot.

She scrounges through her bag -- pulls
out her remaining cash. It's drastically
short of what she owes and she knows it.
She tosses it onto the front seat,
JUMPS from the cab, streaks across the
street. The CABBIE lets out a YELL and
JUMPS out after her.

What was it like being an extra in purple rain..

My family moved to Saint Louis Park, Minn., outside Minneapolis, from Phoenix, in 1971. I first heard Prince on a Friday night in 1979 at the Roller Gardens, a skating rink in my suburb. My friends and I roller-skated every Tuesday or Friday night at Roller Gardens or Cheap Skate in Minneapolis, where the DJs played music based on their taste or what the crowd requested. These were also places where you could hear the latest releases before they hit the radio.

The DJ at the Roller Gardens always spun great disco mixed with R&B and pop music. One night, I remember him saying that he was putting on a new 45 record by Prince called “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” I had never heard Prince before that night, and as soon as the song came on, everyone was dancing and moving to the beat, rolling around the ring, shaking their butts and getting into the grove. The hook was loud and clear and we were all singing it. His sound was heavy, sexy, poppy—everyone at the Roller Gardens that night wanted to be everyone’s lover.

When I got to high school in the early 1980s, I met my first boyfriend. His brother was roommates with Bobby Z., Prince's drummer for the band The Revolution. We thought that was so cool. I remember meeting him at their apartment, but I was too shy to say anything. Before the filming of Purple Rain had even begun or had even been heard of, my boyfriend and I got to hear an early release tape to see if we liked it. We drove around the lakes (Calhoun, Harriet, and Isles), listening to the tape, and as soon as we heard “When Doves Cry,” it was all over.

We listened to the entire tape, smoking a joint and driving around the lakes. Unlike any other music at the time, Prince had this amazing way of getting to your heart and soul. There were a lot of good bands in our town, but nothing like this. We knew he was going to put Minneapolis on the map.

Later in the semester, we started hearing rumors that Prince was making Purple Rain into a movie, and then a kid came up to us at school and said Prince needed extras for the club scenes that were set at First Avenue, a historic club downtown. We could get paid to go down to the club the following Monday, so my girlfriends and I just had to ask our parents if they didn’t mind if we skipped school. At that particular time in my life, I wasn’t the best student, and I thought this would be a great learning experience. My mom said it was fine. So what was it like?

The first couple of days were kind of boring. We were asked to be fillers in crowd scenes, smoking generic cigarettes constantly, even with smoke machines going in the background. We were escorted back and forth to a nearby theater for more sound takes of screaming, clapping, etc., for the soundtrack. After two days of this, we finally saw Prince, when we were filming all the amazing club scenes. I remember Prince on the First Avenue stage with his purple guitar, white ruffled shirt, tight pants, and boots, singing, dancing, writhing on the floor, jumping off a big speaker on the stage, and landing in a split right in front of us.

We heard every song from that album, but I will never forget when Prince played “Purple Rain,” or when we had to learn the hand gestures for “I Would Die 4 U.” The whole experience was like being in a long concert over many days, with a small crowd of people we knew. A lot of our friends kept showing up at the club throughout the week. We probably didn’t look old enough for a lot of the scenes, but that didn’t matter because we still got to be able to witness this amazing music and film.

After the film came out, it was huge and Prince blew up along with The Revolution, The Time, Wendy & Lisa, Minneapolis, and First Avenue. One of the best parts for me was when I went on vacation to see my grandparents in San Francisco that year, and I was able to tell my snobby California cousins in a nonchalant way that I was an extra in Purple Rain, and that Minneapolis was actually a cool place to grow up.

So thanks, Prince, for giving us your music, which allowed us to connect and feel free of rigid values on sexuality, to have fun, get funky, be cool, dance, and party. No matter if you can see me in the film or not, it was amazing just to watch and listen to you, and to be a small part of the crowd in Purple Rain.

Taken from here:

http://www.instyle.com/ce...ovie-extra
[Edited 9/13/16 18:06pm]

More here which is quite interesting..

http://www.mankatofreepre...896d5.html

Elvie said:

Before the filming of Purple Rain had even begun or had even been heard of, my boyfriend and I got to hear an early release tape to see if we liked it. We drove around the lakes (Calhoun, Harriet, and Isles), listening to the tape, and as soon as we heard “When Doves Cry,” it was all over. We listened to the entire tape, smoking a joint and driving around the lakes. Later in the semester, we started hearing rumors that Prince was making Purple Rain into a movie,

Time is playing a trick with her memory.

Elvie said:

More here which is quite interesting.. http://www.mankatofreepre...896d5.html

thanks 4 sharing these

reading the 2nd one now

It is always cool to try to looks at all the background characters

cb70 said:

Yeah, I was like 'how'd that happen?'. I thought the guy who directed the film (that Albert bloke) picked the tracks from over 100 prince already had on standby. None were picked before the film by the director, if I remember correctly.