Great "Great Race" pie pic

[Hayley]

Hiya all

Was rooting around for photos for my unrestricted Flickr page and I found this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sploshhayl ... hotostream

...a great behind the scenes pic of Natalie Wood being hit with a pie by one of the crew (probably not Blake Edwards the director but I might be wrong). Thought I'd share it with you guys cos I know you'd appreciate it. I am thinking of adding a gallery of all my messy icons. Well, it keeps me off the streets.

Hayley x x x

[boxster]

It is he, Hayley. I saw that photo in a biography of Natalie Wood published about 2 years ago, and it identified the pie thrower as Blake Edwards.

Quite long and troubled shoot it seems. Ms Wood tried to kill herself during production (she lost bigger parts as Columbia loaned her out to Warner's for a pittance), Edwards hated her, and it shooting ran months longer than budgeted. Other than that, it must have a fun shoot (snark).

[Hayley]

Thanks for the ID, Boxster. Seems Ms Wood was even more of a handful than I am! Seriously, I love Blake Edwards comedies and he could've thrown pies at me all day and every day!

Hayley x

[BillShipton]

Haha, was wondering why you didn't scan the pic direct onto the forum and then I remembered how 'competitive' you are getting about your hit rate on Flickr! Great picture though and thanks for letting me use it on Facebook (which won't add to your hit rate!).

[boxster]

You and he would have gotten along, Hayley. His second (and last wife) was Julie Andrews. And she was quite the farce player with Carol Burnett!

Ms Wood was very emo, I'm afraid and the book is depressing. But she was in some wonderful movies.

[Hayley]

That might be why, yes! However according to my stats (and you know how much I love them), only 12% of the hits for this picture are from here. See, I do have other fans, my dear.

[Hayley]

You and he would have gotten along, Hayley. His second (and last wife) was Julie Andrews. And she was quite the farce player with Carol Burnett!

Ms Wood was very emo, I'm afraid and the book is depressing. But she was in some wonderful movies.

I saw Julie Andrews' slapstick routine with Carol Burnett on Youtube when Bill pointed it out to me and it's excellent. Great timing. As for Ms Wood, I had heard she was a pain. Do you subscribe to the theory her drowning was less than an accident?

Hayley x x x

[messybear]

Hayley,

I went to your Flikr page from here, so maybe the stats are now at 12.5%?

When I was a lad, I cut out an article from the Daily Telegraph magazine about the Great Race, I kept it folded at the back of a drawer in my bedroom, in hte belief that mum woouln't find it....

The article featured I think just one colour photo of the pie scene, but as I recall, the text said that it took 5 days to shoot and used over 4000 pies; or it could have been 4 days and 5000 - it was a long time ago.

Don't know what happened to the magazine cutting, but I do know that it was a great influencer on my life and enjoyment of slapstick and sploshing.
BB

[mr angry]

Natalie Wood never looked sexier than she did in this film and I loved the outfit she wore for the pie fight.

[Hayley]

Thanks everyone! The power of pie got me to a record 1,867 hits in a day on my Flickr page! And yes Messybear you helped cos 14% were from here. And it wasn't even a full day so perhaps it could be even higher. Okay, keep calm and carry on, Hayley!

Yup, Mr A it is a great outfit though I would have gone for a black basque underneath if it was me! And Boxster I have given a lot of rather naughty thought to the idea of being in this scene! If I was Miss Dubois (forgive me if I've spelled that wrong) I would have to get Blake Edwards to add a nice multiple pie barrage for me as well as the individual ones. And of course it would have been nice to fall face first into that huge cake. However if Bill was there too I suspect what would have happened is that they would spend the whole day arguing about the funniest way to throw the pies whilst I stood there hands on hips in my basque and stockings shouting. "Won't somebody just pie me!"

I don't know the exact statistics for the pie fight except that it took around a week to film (what a fab week that would be!) and the pies must have certainly numbered many hundreds - though Natalie doesn't get nearly enough!

On the look out for more iconic slapstick pics for my Flickr page, so feel free to nominate any.

Brandy, brandy, throw more brandy!
Hayley x x x

[mr angry]

Hayley, agree I would have dressed her in a black basque too, as for the number of pies, I have read somewhere that it was 3000!!

I would love to direct my own version of this, only I would have all girls, about 15 of them, all dressed in very glamourous sexy formal/evening dresses and the action would start in a function room, switching to the kitchen, where at least one girl would fall into the huge cake.

Volunteer Hayley??

[Hayley]

I'd be first in the queue!

H xxxx

[messyjojo]

"HEY........PROFESSOR!!!!!!!!!..........."