DEFYING THE ODDS: A RADIO TREATMENT ASSIGNMENT

INTRODUCTION: From overcoming complications at birth to foster care, homelessness, pornography, and ultimately finding overnight breakthrough success in Hollywood. It is a Cinderella story for veteran actor and director Sylvester Stallone. It is a tale of heartbreak, struggle, self-discovery, and inspiration as Stallone defies the odds in becoming a significant movie industry player.

PLOT: Born in Hell's Kitchen, a neighborhood in New York City, Sylvester Stallone is the older son of hairdresser and beautician Francesco Stallone Sr. and Jacqueline "Jackie" Stallone, a dancer, astrologer, and promoter of women's wrestling. His father is an Italian born in Italy, while his mother is of French and Jewish descent. His father first came to the United States in the early 1930s. Born in 1946, Stallone arrived despite complications during labor as doctors were forced to use pairs of forceps that accidentally served a nerve. As a result, this caused paralysis on the lower left side of Stallone's face. Despite it affecting parts of his tongue, lips, slurred speech, and presenting the stigma that he was mentally challenged, Stallone overcame this disability. Life proved difficult for Stallone in the first five years of his life as he lived in foster care. It's an unfortunate position for any child to be in as it can be unstable and affect the overall morale of a child. Luckily for Stallone, he reunited with his father shortly after his parents divorced. Sadly, the reunion wasn't forever, as Stallone moved in with his remarried mother in his teens. Imagine navigating through life without a solid foundation of parents. Imagine trying to discover yourself in those first fifteen years of life. It should be nothing more than the age of innocence. For young Stallone, this was not meant to be in the cards, as on top of that, Stallone dealt with being bullied constantly. To combat this, he looked into bodybuilding and acting. Stallone figured that he could live a better life if he had the right size, look, and acting skills. From 1968 to 1975, Stallone studied and majored in drama. As he would discover during this period, becoming an overnight sensation in Hollywood would not come instantly. From working odd jobs like driving taxi cabs and working at restaurants, Stallone worked wherever, whenever. Included was working as a porn actor. It was a moment Stallone was not proud of but felt desperate times called for desperate measures. At this point, Stallone was evicted from his home and sleeping out on the streets. If not for seeing a flyer promoting the need for an actor for a prosopography movie, Sylvester Stallone was sure he would take to a life of crime for survival. Stallone would eventually find himself back in New York City. Here, he continued working odd jobs while strengthening his writing skills.

Stallone always kept an eye out for any movie roles. This included failing an audition for The Godfather (1972), working small parts in theater plays, and landing television roles on Police Story, Kojak, and movies such as MASH, Pigeons, and Woody Allen's Bananas (1971). Stallone's moment of triumph would come after penning the script for Rocky (1976). The actor drew inspiration for Rocky from the real-life fight between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. Stallone knew he could capture the Rocky Balboa character perfectly as he knew all about the character's struggles. Stallone was writing about his own life in Rocky. Hollywood was not interested in taking on an unknown & unproven actor for a starring role. As a result, the actor met resistance to getting his script approved for pre-production.

RESOLUTION: Stallone found people in Hollywood producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff who believed in his script for Rocky and him starring in the lead role. Winkler and Chartoff were able to facilitate a deal where Sylvester Stallone would sell his rights away of Rocky to Winkler. A decision Stallone would come to regret many years later saying on social media; "After IRWIN controlling ROCKY for over 47 years , and now CREED, I really would like have at least a little WHAT’s LEFT of my RIGHTS back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN," an impassioned Stallone wrote. "I believe That would be a FAIR gesture from this 93 year old gentleman?" Despite the decision at the time, Rocky would serve as a launchpad for Stallone's breakthrough in the entertainment industry. Stallone knew this was his career-defining moment and had to seize it at all costs. Ultimately, it proved to be a wise decision, as Rocky would take in a box office total of $225 million. Good for a movie with a budget cut to a modest $960,000. Nominated for numerous Academy and Golden Gold awards, including winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director and a Golden Globe winner for Best Picture. So, what is the moral of the story? No one will hit harder than life as you have to keep moving forward. That is how winning is done, as winners do not quit at all costs.

NOTES:

How and why did Hollywood give in to his demands for the Rocky Script?

How much of an impact did his mother and father have on his life from a positive aspect, If any?

His mother, before she died, lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. As I was made aware of, he visited her during her twilight years of life on numerous occasions. How was that relationship in later years?

How did his relationship with his mother change from birth to when he moved in with her in his teenage years?

From a mainstream integration perspective, How did growing up during decades of racial segregation change his outlook on life, if at all, and treating people as equals regardless of race and religion?

Any unease in making the main antagonist in the movie Black and superior to the Rocky character? Any fear of the mainstream media backlash?

Citations

Filart, M. (2019, December 19). 19 Shady Things About Sylvester Stallone Everybody Ignores. TheThings. https://www.thethings.com/20-shady-things-about-sylvester-stallone-everybody-ignores/#he-never-received-licensing-revenue-for-rocky

Sylvester Stallone Calls Out “Rocky” Producer Amid Film Rights Battle. (n.d.). Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved October 7, 2023, from https://www.etonline.com/sylvester-stallone-calls-out-rocky-producer-irwin-winkler-asking-for-whats-left-of-my-rights-back 

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Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, April 3). Sylvester Stallone. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Stallone 

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