American Hot Wax
“1959. New York City. The battleground was Rock and Roll. It was the beginning of an era. You shoulda been there.”
Synopsis
This is the story loosely based on Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who introduced rock'n'roll to teenage American radio audiences in the 1950s. Freed was a source of great controversy: criticized by conservatives for corrupting youth with the "devil's music"; hated by racists for promoting African American music for white consumption; persecuted by law enforcement officials and finally brought down by the "payola" scandals.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 18
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Ronald J FaganShot by William A FrakerScored by Kenny Vance
Box Office
1978 · Box office
Grossed $11.0M worldwide
Worldwide gross
$11.0M
US & Canada: $7.9M — 72% of worldwide · International: $3.1M (28%)
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Cast & Crew
18 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Tim Mcintire
as Alan Freed
Fran Drescher
as Sheryl
Jay Leno
as Mookie
Laraine Newman
as Teenage Louise
Carl Weaver
as Member of The Chesterfields
Al Chalk
as Member of The Chesterfields
Sam Harkness
as Member of The Chesterfields
Arnold Mcculler
as Member of The Chesterfields
Jeff Altman
as Lennie Richfield
Moosie Drier
as Artie Moress
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
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