LIFE Rocky: Underdog. Fighter. Champion. PDF
Preview LIFE Rocky: Underdog. Fighter. Champion.
ROCK Y UNDERDOG. 4 5 FIGHTER. CHAMPION. YEARS OF ROCKY Sylvester BALBOA Stallone’s Enduring Masterpiece The Scenes, The Characters, The Music Creed: The Spirit Lives On ROCKY ROCKY EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kostya Kennedy CREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary Stewart EDITOR Justin Davey DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Christina Lieberman ART DIRECTOR Kory Kennedy WRITER Steve Rushin COPY EDITOR Tom Gilbert PICTURE EDITOR Rachel Hatch WRITER-REPORTER Tresa McBee ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Steph Durante PHOTO ASSISTANT Charlotte Borge PRODUCTION DESIGNER Sandra Jurevics PREMEDIA TRAFFICKING SUPERVISOR Alexander Gray COLOR QUALITY ANALYST Tony Hunt MEREDITH PREMIUM PUBLISHING VICE PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHER Scott Mortimer VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Stephen Orr VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING Jeremy Biloon DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Jean Kennedy ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Bryan Christian SENIOR BRAND MANAGER Katherine Barnet EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kostya Kennedy CREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary Stewart DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Christina Lieberman EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Jamie Roth Major MANAGER, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Gina Scauzillo SPECIAL THANKS Brad Beatson, Samantha Lebofsky, Kate Roncinske, Tracy Guth Spangler, Laura Villano MEREDITH NATIONAL MEDIA GROUP PRESIDENT Catherine Levene PRESIDENT, MEREDITH MAGAZINES Doug Olson PRESIDENT, CONSUMER PRODUCTS Tom Witschi PRESIDENT, MEREDITH DIGITAL Alysia Borsa EVP, STRATEGIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Daphne Kwon EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENTS CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER Michael Brownstein DIGITAL SALES Marla Newman FINANCE Michael Riggs MARKETING & INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS Nancy Weber SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS CONSUMER MARKETING Steve Crowe CONSUMER REVENUE Andy Wilson CORPORATE SALES Brian Kightlinger FOUNDRY 360 Matt Petersen PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY Justin Law RESEARCH SOLUTIONS Britta Cleveland STRATEGIC PLANNING Amy Thind STRATEGIC SOURCING, NEWSSTAND, PRODUCTION Chuck Howell VICE PRESIDENTS BRAND LICENSING Toye Cody and Sondra Newkirk BUSINESS PLANNING & ANALYSIS Rob Silverstone FINANCE Chris Susil STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT Kelsey Andersen STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Alicia Cervini VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Stephen Orr CHIEF DIGITAL CONTENT OFFICER Amanda Dameron DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS & FINANCE Greg Kayko MEREDITH CORPORATION CHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Tom Harty CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Jason Frierott CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER John Zieser PRESIDENT, MEREDITH LOCAL MEDIA GROUP Patrick McCreery SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES Dina Nathanson SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Erica Jensen VICE CHAIRMAN Mell Meredith Frazier Copyright © 2021 Meredith Corporation 225 Liberty Street • New York, NY 10281 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or CONTENTS mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. For syndication requests or international licensing requests or reprint and reuse permission, e-mail [email protected]. PRINTED IN THE USA LIFE is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries. 2 LIFE ROCKY ROCKY CUE THE THEME FROM , “Gonna Fly Now,” and Rocky, in a gray sweat suit, pounding the pavement (here, iconically, Rocky II in ). Neighborhood children followed him up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 4 26 ROCK OF AGES THE RING CYCLE 8 38 FOE TURNED FRIEND “A MILLION-TO-ONE 64 IN HIS CORNER UNDERDOG” 68 24 A REAL-LIFE ROCKY 21 CENTURY ROCK ST 90 FIGHTING GOLIATHS 3 I N T R O D U C T I O N Rocky Balboa, the underdog palooka who fought his way to box off ice super-success, burst into popular culture in 1976. Now, 45 years later, tourists still run the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Marching bands play “Gonna Fly Now” as halftime entertainment. High school football teams get wild- eyed to “Eye of the Tiger.” Rocky’s legacy endures. Rocky On the morning run, S ROCKY THE FRANCHISE TAPPED into something universal, though the theme was nothing ylvester Stallone was the new. Stallone’s version of little first to admit there was guy beats the system resounded in part through Rocky’s epic nothing new about Rocky bouts with Apollo Creed (shown Balboa, whose most famous Rocky here in in 1976). monosyllable—“Yo!”—is likely as old as Cro-Magnon man. The Roman numerals appended to Rocky four sequels date to Caesar’s time, while the main storyline of the film franchise—as a television announcer Rocky IV shrieks in , just before Balboa squares off with Ivan Drago—is “a true case of David and Goliath!” Rocky Whatever its origin, the fran- chise taps into something eternal, pos- sibly even preverbal, though Stallone dates the protagonist that he created only to the dawn of cinema. “I didn’t invent this formula of the little guy who beats the system,” said the star, writer, and sometime director, himself a meta- phorical little guy who beat the system. “Frank Capra did very well with it, and Rocky so did Charlie Chaplin. If proves anything, it’s that old formulas never Rocky die.” By the time Stallone wrote , Hollywood had already made roughly 100 boxing movies. Rocky “ revives something old that has always worked,” is how Burgess Meredith put it on the eve of the 1977 Oscars, when he was up for Best Supporting Actor for the role of boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill. “It allows the audience to participate. They feel that’s them up there on the screen. They have an emotional investment in the fi lm.” If old formulas never die, neither do old boxers. Rocky Balboa, who burst into the American consciousness 45 years ago, in 1976, has lived on through eight movies and counting. The charac- ter earned a Best Actor nomination for Stallone at the start of the Jimmy Carter Rocky administration (for ) and a Best Supporting Actor nod at the end of the Creed Barack Obama presidency (for ). That 39-year gap between nominations is the longest for any actor playing the same character. In those four decades, “Yo, Adrian” has joined the very short list of very short quotes that are instantly iden- tifiable with a classic character 6 LIFE ROCKY from a classic film. Tourists to this day run up the 72 stone steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art—now called the Rocky Steps—as the title Rocky character did in , and venerate the statue of Rocky that Stallone com- Rocky III missioned, as a prop, for . The statue has done almost as much run- ning through Philadelphia as the char- acter it represents. It once stood at the top of the museum steps, was moved to Philadelphia’s Spectrum arena—site of Balboa’s first fight with Apollo Creed— and now stands at the bottom of the museum’s steps, bronze arms forever raised in triumph, holding the pose for tourists with selfie sticks. ROCKY “ALLOWS THE AUDIENCE TO PARTICIPATE. THEY FEEL THAT’S THEM UP THERE ON THE SCREEN. THEY HAVE AN EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT.” —BURGESS MEREDITH When the robe that Rocky wore into the ring to fight Apollo Creed for the first time made its way into the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, sharing a roof with Lincoln’s top hat and Edison’s light bulb, that museum’s then-direc- tor, Brent D. Glass, said: “The story of Rocky Balboa, an underdog from the urban working class, is a quintessen- tial depiction of the American dream.” Can the same be said of Stallone, and the Rocky making of ? loot As Rock would say: “Abza ly.” “In one year, my life exploded for the better,” Stallone said in the 2020 docu- 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of mentary a Classic . “So I tell people, ‘you never know.’ You just never, never know if you’re gonna hit the lottery. You just gotta keep buying tickets.” l 7 C H A P T E R I With $106 left in the bank, Sylvester Stallone took one last swing at movie stardom. It landed, and Rocky—the story he conceived—would become one of the greatest.
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