American Hot Wax

Looking more like a young and slimmed down Rush Limbaugh then the legendary pioneer Rock & Roll DJ the late Tim Mcintire, who ironically died in 1986 at almost the same age that Freed passed away some twenty years earlier. "American Hot Wax" is tragic as well as prophetic story about Alan Freed who more then anyone else put Rock & Roll on the map and made the saying,like the song says,"Rock & Roll is here to Stay" a reality.

Mcintire in the best performance of his career gives it all he's got as Alan Freed and comes across, despite his obvious non-resemblance to Alan Freed, as good as Freed ever was on the silver screen in a number of films that he stared in. The movie starts at the hight of Freed's popularity in 1959 as he's getting together a number of top Rock & Roll singers and groups to appear at the Brooklyn Paramount for his first anniversary Rock & Roll show.

The local authorities as well as the big wigs in the record industry have had in in for Freed since he came on the scene back in 1952 in Clevelend. It was then when Freed first coined the word Rock & Roll and, according to them and the blue noses of that time, corrupted the American youth with that wild and uncontrollable music.

The movie has the theater raided by the police because it was declared a fire hazard and Freed arrested and the entertainers dragged off the stage as the thousands of Rock & Roll fans go wild. The movie "American Hot Wax" briefly touched on the payola scandal of 1959-1960 that in reality was the real reason for Freed's downfall not the wild scene at the Brooklyn Paramount at the end of the movie.

Freed never played a record that he didn't like payola or not and took money to play the records that he liked unsolicited thinking that it was just part of being a DJ on the radio. The fact that Alan Freed wouldn't sign a statement that he never took payola, which was untrue, had him fired from the WABC radio station that he worked for in 1960. Later Freed, after having brief jobs as a DJ in L.A and Miami on stations KDAY & WQAM, was blackballed out of the music business altogether.

Hit with charges by the IRS in March 1964 for back taxes Alan Freed, who was already at that time both unemployed and unemployable, went into a tailspin as his drinking got out of hand and he died in a California hospital, broke and forgotten, of kidney failure on January 20, 1965, Freed was 43 years old.

There was one irony to Freed's life, and death, that really sticks out and makes you think if there's truly such a thing as fate and destiny. Exactly three months to the day that Alan Freed died on April 19, 1965 the radio station that Alan Freed made synonymous with himself and into the flagship radio station in playing the music that he loved and died for in the fabulous 1950's. Freed's old station 1010 WINS New York changed it's policy of playing Rock & Roll, or any other type of, music by becoming the first radio station in the nation to go all news all the time, an all-news network, which it still is today. April 19, 1965 was for all intents and purposes "The Day the Music Died" on 1010 WINS.

This movie is based very loosely on the career of Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed and his contribution to the development of rock 'n' roll. I thought the acting was way over the top. I do appreciate Tim McIntire's portrayal of Freed. He put the point across that Freed lived and breathed rock 'n' roll and introduced a score of hit makers to the world. But remember he was also trying his best to better his own career.

My favorite part of the movie is the finale where wild man Jerry Lee Lewis stands singing on top of a piano in the middle of a riot. Chuck Berry helped make the move legit. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins brought the house down.

I hate to say that I thought the whole movie was pretty much self serving, but very fun to watch. If you were a teen or near teen as I was when the real thing was happening, you will certainly start having flashbacks.

Also in the cast are a very young Jay Leno and Fran Drescher. There is also Laraine Newman and Melanie Chartoff way before they made careers in comedy. You also might notice Hamilton Camp, Moosie Drier and Brenda Russell.

Watch this again and don't be afraid to let the good times roll.

I love this movie. I saw it again on television a couple of years ago and tried to get my kids to sit down and watch it. I thought that the movie would give them a better appreciation of the music they take for granted and enjoy today if they could see what some people went through and the risks they took so that rock and roll could survive.

There are plenty of hokey things in this film, but Tim McIntire's performance is one of the best ever in a rock and roll film. I don't know if this is what Alan Freed was really like, but I would like to think so. So often actors can't manage to provide charisma in their portrayal of a well known figure -- this was no problem for McIntire, who's charisma practically burns through the film. Lots of fun.

This movie has heart, soul and a passion for the music. A loving tribute to an exciting era. I grew up in Philadelphia, where guys doo-wopped in garages and on street corners, hoping Alan Freed would someday play their song. This movie successfully shows how important our new music was to us. Long Live Rock and Roll!