Bullitt Points: Memories of Steve McQueen and Bullitt
By Tony Piazza
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About this ebook
Peek Behind the Scenes of Bullitt and Help Kids at the Same Time! 100% of Net Profits Go to Boys Republic, Steve McQueen's Favorite Charity.
Hello, I’m Tony Piazza. My father, Anthony Piazza, Sr., worked as the San Francisco Police Department Liaison to Warner Brothers during the filming of Bullitt and other great films of the 1960s and 1970s. He served as a technical adviser and location scout, and directed the logistics of moving equipment, vehicles and traffic during shoots. He was instrumental in the success of many San Francisco-based movies.
I had the good fortune of growing up around the sets, meeting many of the actors, and serving as a SAG actor and stand-in myself in TV series such as Streets of San Francisco, and movies such as Towering Inferno and High Anxiety. On my sixteenth birthday I ate Thanksgiving dinner with Sidney Poitier. My first car was almost Inspector Callahan’s Ford from Dirty Harry, and I even wore a wig and an ascot to act as a photo double for Larry Hagman.
Some of my most cherished memories come from the filming of Bullitt and my family’s interactions with Steve McQueen. In 2013 the film will be celebrating its 45th Anniversary, and I’ve been asked to share some of these behind-the-scenes views, trivia and experiences with you. I put these memories together in an e-book called Bullitt Points: Memories of Steve McQueen and Bullitt.
I’d like you to buy a copy–not just so you can enjoy the stories, but because 100% of the net profits will go to Steve McQueen’s favorite charity.
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Book preview
Bullitt Points - Tony Piazza
BULLITT POINTS
by
Tony Piazza
Foreword by David Congalton
Smashwords Edition
*******
Copyright © 2012 Tony Piazza
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To two cool guys: Steve McQueen and my Dad.
Foreword
The epicenter of Lt. Frank Bullitt has always been his apartment on the corner of Clay and Taylor in San Francisco, one of the few classic movie locations I’ve ever bothered to track down. It’s still there, less than a brisk 15-minute walk from Union Square, right around the corner from two other city landmarks made famous in the movie—Grace Cathedral and the Mark Hopkins Hotel.
A few coats of paint have been splashed on 1153 Taylor Street, over the years, but Bullitt’s apartment is still instantly recognizable. The little corner grocery store across the street, where Bullitt used to buy his TV dinners, is now a liquor store and the newspaper rack is gone, but the spirit of Frank Bullitt is very much alive in the neighborhood. You can stand on the corner today, half-expecting Jacqueline Bisset to pull up in her VW, wearing that shortest of short skirts.
The movie of course is Bullitt, the coolest of the cool Steve McQueen films of the 1960’s, the one where he didn’t have to share the spotlight with an ensemble, as in The Magnificent Seven or The Great Escape. No, Bullitt is strictly a vehicle for McQueen, though for some, the iconic actor is overshadowed by the Mustang his character drove in the greatest movie chase sequence of them all.
I still remember the first time I saw Bullitt. It was the summer of 1968 and my buddy Phil Robinson and I went to a matinee at the Golf Mill movie theater in Niles, Illinois. We had this bad habit of never bothering to check movie times. We just showed up, went in, saw whatever part of the movie was playing and then stuck around for the next screening. An odd way to watch a movie, yes, but back then we saw movies on our schedule. Remember, this was 1968. Even we were rebellious.
For Bullitt, we stumbled in just at the beginning of the car chase. We didn’t know the characters. We didn’t know the plot. At that point, all we knew was that Steve McQueen was driving a Mustang and Holy &$@#!—what is going on here!?!?!?! Our stomachs flipped. Our hands gripped the seats—this