“Urban Cowboy” Movie Memorabilia

Posted by gilleysmuseum.com on March 9, 2012 · 2 Comments 

In addition to the movie posters from a previous post, we have many  other pieces that are related to the film “Urban Cowboy.”

A good starting point would be the Esquire Magazine article that started it all. Published in the September 12, 1978 issue was “The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America’s Search for True Grit” by Aaron Latham. Here is a picture of our copy of this rare issue of Esquire Magazine.

September 12, 1978 issue of Esquire Magazine with cover story that led to the making of “Urban Cowboy” as a film.

 

One of our favorite and most rare pieces is this Paramount Pictures “Urban Cowboy” Production Team T shirt. This shirt was made in small numbers only for the people involved in the production and filming of the movie, so it was not sold to the general public. From 1979, this is a classic red 3/4 sleeve baseball style white T shirt with the old “Gilley’s Club Pasadena, Texas” logo on the back. Here’s what it looks like.

Urban Cowboy Production Team T shirt.

Remember early in the film “Urban Cowboy” there was a sequence of scenes where Bud (John Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger) are at the Texas Prison Rodeo where they first see Wes (Scott Glenn) riding the bull? If you look closely while Sissy is looking through her binoculars you can see a blond lady behind Sissy’s left shoulder looking at a booklet. Here is a screen shot of that part of the scene.

Screen shot of Sissy watching Texas Prison Rodeo while a lady behind her looks at her Prison Rodeo Souvenir Program.

That booklet is an Official Souvenir Program for the real 1979 48th Annual Texas Prison Rodeo where the scenes were shot. The cover shows an artist’s rendering of a rodeo clown helping a prisoner who’s hand is still stuck in his bull riding strap handle. According to the cover the event took place every Sunday in October. The program contains over 50 pages of information and great pictures. As you can see in the picture below, our copy has hand written near the top center the date 10-7 (1979) on it.

This 1979 48th Annual Texas Prison Rodeo Offical Souvenir Program is part of the GilleysMuseum.com collection.

Next is a Paramount Picture Press Book. It contains information and pictures of the stars, a complete list of credits, and different sizes and formats of ads and printed materials theaters can use to promote the showing of the film “Urban Cowboy.” Here is a picture of the GilleysMuseum.com copy.

Vintage 1980 Paramount Press Book for the film “Urban Cowboy”

The companion piece to the press book is the “Urban Cowboy” Press Kit from Paramount Pictures. The kit is a folder containing many studio publicity photos, each with their own publicity department description typed onto Paramount Pictures letterhead, and a stack of press releases each focusing on a different star or element of the film that can be used for newspaper articles, etc. to promote the showing of “Urban Cowboy.” As you can see from the pictures below, the GilleysMuseum.com copy was definitely put to use but is still a great piece of movie history and “Urban Cowboy” memorabilia.

This is a vintage 1980 Paramount Pictures Press Kit for the film “Urban Cowboy.”

Do you remember when the movie theaters used to sell souvenir programs? Well here is the one they sold along with the showing of “Urban Cowboy.” It’s a large 9 x 12 inches and has almost 20 pages of great pictures and information on the stars and story. Here’s what the GilleysMuseum.com program looks like.

This is a vintage original Paramount Pictures 1980 theater souvenir program for the film “Urban Cowboy.”

As a promotional item, back in the day it was very common to give away matchbooks with advertising material printed on them. Here is a very rare matchbook from Paramount Pictures promoting the film “Urban Cowboy.” The background color is actually a light tan, not mint as it appears in the picture. It is part of the GilleysMuseum.com collection.

This is an original Paramount Pictures promotional matchbook for the film “Urban Cowboy.”

It was also fairly common to sell pins that you could wear. This “Urban Cowboy” pin measures 2 1/8 inches in diameter and is in like new condition. The background is all white, the print is black and the graphic is in shades of brown. It’s a part of the GilleysMuseum.com collection and here is what it looks like.

This is a vintage original 2 1/8 inch “I’m an Urban Cowboy” pin.

Every movie with a successful soundtrack has to have a book of music to go with it. “Urban Cowboy” was no different. In 1980 Warner Brothers Publications Inc put out “Urban Cowboy” Music From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack including 96 pages of sheet music with lyrics and some great still photos from the film. Here is a picture of our GilleysMuseum.com copy.

Urban Cowboy – Music From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

I’ll be adding more later as time permits. As always, feel free to ask questions or leave a comment.

Bubba

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