ONE OF the most successful comedy film franchises during the 1980s was Police Academy. In 1984 Messrs Mahoney, Hightower, Tackleberry and Jones were a group of misfits who unwittingly found themselves recruited as trainee US police officers.
Over the next decade their ongoing battle of wits with their commanding officer Lieutenant Harris became the stuff of comedy legend as Police Academy 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 followed their adventures.
The part of human beat box and sound effects man, Larvell Jones, was played by actor/comedian/impressionist Michael Winslow. He brings his vocal gymnastics to Galway later this month when he appears at Town Hall Theatre on Monday September 21 at 8pm as part of an extensive Irish tour.
Winslow was born into a military family in the city of Spokane, near Seattle, and was surrounded by a cacophony of sounds from an early age as he spent his childhood on various Air Force bases across the USA.
“The fun thing about that was you had the sound of fighter jets and helicopter around all the time,” says Winslow. “Also because we moved so much I had a different accent every other week!
“When people remember things and experiences they think of the images of them but I always remembered things by the sound of them – I can’t help it. I used to watch a lot of the old cartoons as a kid and it was the voices that really made them special for me. All the characters that Mel Blanc played were amazing and that really inspired me.”
As a result of his prodigious way with sounds and voices Michael spent “more time in the principal’s office than in class” during his school years. In his late teens he decided that he could actually turn his talents into a successful career.
“During my first year in college I thought I’d really go for it and develop this talent,” he says. “That summer I hitchhiked to Hollywood and it was exactly like one of those stories that you hear about. I sort of said that I’d try it for one summer and if it didn’t work out then I’d go back to school. However, it did work out for me and I ended up going to film school out there anyway.”
In order to support himself financially in California oftentimes Winslow would turn to street performance to make ends meet.
“I was kind of in a homeless situation in Venice Beach at one time and there were a lot of street performers around,” he says. “They were all really good but you would sort of wonder how they would do on a different stage. Every once in a while one or two people would make the breakthrough. The thing about being a street performer is that you very quickly learn how to use an opportunity to your advantage when you see it.”
Police Academy
Over time Winslow made the transition from street performer to screen actor. In the late 1970s appeared on US talent competition The Gong Show and made a number of brief appearances in films around that time. However, it was while performing as support act to legendary jazz pianist Count Basie that an opportunity arose for Michael Winslow which was to change his life forever.
“Everyone in life gets one of those golden moments and I consider myself lucky to have been able to share the stage with such a musical great,” says Winslow.
“The producer Paul Maslansky and the director Hugh Wilson (of Police Academy ) were jazz fanatics and they went to see guys like Count Basie all the time. Anyway this one night the sound system broke down and I ended up having to help the production.
“I did a couple of sounds of different instruments alongside the piano and it worked and they loved it. A couple of days later the producers phoned me and offered me a part in Police Academy.”
Within weeks Winslow decamped to Toronto to begin shooting the madcap comedy and it just so happened that many of the scenes were filmed on the site of a former mental hospital. “Yeah the Lakeshore Studios used to be the Lakeshore Asylum,” he says.
“They shot a lot of movies on that property because it had the old-fashioned gothic look and it has the quintessential institutional look. I remember going inside some of those buildings and thinking ‘Oh, man, this is spooky’! There was just this vast collection of buildings surrounded by acres and acres of land. Ultimately there was something strange and intriguing about the place. Actually some of the X Files series was shot there too many years later.”
Alongside Winslow, the film starred Steve Guttenberg as ne’er-do-well Carey Mahoney, former American football star Bubba Smith as Moses Hightower and David Graf as gun-toting Eugene Tackleberry.
“When I first heard about Police Academy it sounded like a lot of fun,” says Winslow. “People get lots of funny things happening to them but nobody gets killed. Then you look at a character like Carey Mahoney and that’s your buddy for life.
“For Jones he only had a couple of friends but he knew that Mahoney was always going to be there. With Mahoney, Hightower and Tackleberry it was almost like a family. Unfortunately David Graf passed away in 2000 and that was really sad for everyone.
“The thing that people don’t know about him is that he went through all this military training to make the scenes with the guns look real. He knew how to make it look easy and I’ll always remember the scene where he used a machine gun to spell out ‘Have A Nice Day’ That scene always makes me laugh.”
Police Academy also featured a number of up-and-coming female actresses and many of them have since gone on to major Hollywood success.
“The first movie had a young Kim Kattrall in it and it’s wonderful how she has gone on to have great success with Sex and the City” says Winslow. “Sharon Stone was in Police Academy 4 and she’s gone on to have a great career too. It’s funny because I can remember them when they were just these shy young ladies on set. The thing about them was that you knew that there was a special talent there.”
The seventh Police Academy film Mission To Moscow was released in 1994 to mixed reviews and is the least successful of the series. In recent years there have been rumours of a new instalment in the Police Academy series and Winslow sheds some light on this.
“I know the producers are really actively trying to get that together,” he says. “I don’t know if they’ve got the original director involved though as yet. I would like to see it happening because by now I’d figure Mahoney would be a young senator. It’d be great to see the progression up the ranks.”
In recent years Winslow has toured the world bringing his vocal abilities and his stand-up comedy show to many thousands. He is very much looking forward to returning to Ireland this month.
“I did a couple of shows around Dublin a few years ago,” he says. “I’m delighted though that we’re going to see more of Ireland this time around. I got a lot of beat box fans in Ireland and I try to give then a good show. There’s something in my show for everybody. If you’re a music fan and you like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin you’ll be very happy with the show.”
It’s been a long journey from Air Force bases, via Police Academy, to this point and Winslow continues to pack them in. “I’ve been blessed with this gift to make people smile because of the sounds that I make,” he says. “I hope that people walk out a little bit happier than they were when they walked in.”
Tickets are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777.
