The Swinging Cheerleaders

Plot

In order to write an article for the Mesa University college newspaper on how cheerleading demeans women, Kate (Jo Johnston) infiltrates the cheerleading squad. Only her boyfriend Ron knows about this. The other cheerleaders deal with their own problems: Mary Ann (Colleen Camp) struggles to get her promiscuous football player boyfriend, Buck (Ron Hajek), to propose to her; Lisa (Rosanne Katon) is having an affair with statistics teacher Professor Thorpe (Jason Sommers); and Andrea (Rainbeaux Smith) debates whether or not to stay a virgin. Kate has an affair with Buck, about which her boyfriend Ron confronts her; Kate says it was for the article and she doesn't like Ron like before. They break up.

Kate insists Andrea have a one-night stand with a stranger. Andrea has sex with Kate's ex, Ron. She insists on having more so Ron invites over friends. After Andrea shows up at her ex's door, he beats up Ron. Meanwhile, Kate uncovers unscrupulous dealings: the football coach (Jack Denton) and college dean (George D. Wallace) are rigging games to favor betting spreads that Professor Thorpe, who is also the bookie, arranges. Later, Prof. Thorpe turns against the coach and dean as they turn against their star quarterback, whom they want to convince to throw the game for a big payoff. When confronted, the quarterback refuses on principle and is arrested by university police, who plant a marijuana joint on him. The movie endorses defiance of authority, and questions the ideals of love and virginity.

Cast

• Jo Johnston as Kate
• Rainbeaux Smith as Andrea
• Colleen Camp as Mary Ann
• Rosanne Katon as Lisa
• Ron Hajek as Buck
• Ric Carrott as Ross
• Jason Sommers as Professor Thorpe
• Ian Sander as Ron
• George D. Wallace as Mr. Putnam
• Jack Denton as Coach Turner
• John Quade as Belski
• Robert Lee Minor as Ryan
• Mae Mercer as Jessica Thorpe
• Dion Lane as Janie Hamilton
• Hank Rolike as The Bartender
• Fred Scheiwiller as Jerry
• Jodi Carlson as Other Cheerleader
• Gary Schneider as Jock At Party
• Sandy Dempsey as Girl At Tryouts
• Candy All as Girl At Tryouts

Production

The Swinging Cheerleaders was shot in Pacific Palisades, California. According to co-writer/director Jack Hill, the film had a 12-day shoot. They started work on the script at the end of January 1974 and the movie was in theatres by May. The original title of the script was Stand Up and Holler, because, as Jack Hill later put it, "Actresses had a way of not wanting to be in a movie called The Swinging Cheerleaders."

Reception

The Swinging Cheerleaders had a 30-theater opening on September 4, 1974, in the San Francisco exchange territory and grossed $101,855 in its first week. The film also had early success at drive-in theaters in cities such as Salt Lake City; Denver; Phoenix, Arizona; Auburn, Washington; and Portland, Oregon. It opened in 61 theaters in the New England area during the second week of September with 40 of those theaters reporting an estimated $130,000 in grosses.

The film was released again in 1981 as The Locker Room Girls and made $1,150,000.

In popular culture

Randall Dale Adams and David Harris saw The Swinging Cheerleaders at a Dallas drive-in theater on November 28, 1976; it was the second of a double feature preceded by The Student Body (1976, directed by Gus Trikonis). Both men mentioned their attendance at the drive-in as part of their alibis while being investigated for the murder of Dallas Police Department Officer Robert W. Wood. In the Errol Morris documentary The Thin Blue Line, Adams claimed that he did not feel comfortable with the film's content, and so he and Harris left before it was finished. Clips from the film appear in The Thin Blue Line.

References

References

1. Calum Waddell, ''Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film'', McFarland, 2009 p174
2. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072236/ "The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974),"] IMDB.com. Accessed Jan. 20, 2016.
3. [http://www.trailersfromhell.com/trailers/646 Jack Hill on ''The Swinging Cheerleaders''] at [[Trailers From Hell]] accessed 10 June 2012
4. ''Box Office'' staff. (September 30, 1974). "'''Swinging Cheerleaders''' Continues High Grosses". BoxOffice Media.
5. Donahue, Suzanne Mary. (1987). "American film distribution : the changing marketplace". UMI Research Press.
6. Morris, Errol, director. ''The Thin Blue Line'' (Miramax, 1988).
7. Ebert, Roger. (September 16, 1988). "The Thin Blue Line".