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The "Swan Song Fiasco" (or, "Why are all those dead birds floating around?")
The name of Swan's conglomerate was originally "Swan Song Enterprises". Throughout Phantom of the Paradise, references to that company name are visible here and there.
But the most prominent references to "Swan Song" had to be obliterated in post-production because, shortly before the film's release, Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant, created a real-life record company called "Swansong". Grant had previously managed a band called Stone the Crows, whose lead singer, Leslie Harvey, had been electrocuted onstage during a sound check in 1972, and Grant was apparently upset by the prospect of a film not only using the "Swansong" name, but also, adding insult to injury, featuring an onstage electrocution of a rock star. The fucking crybaby.
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| On the left is a photo of John Alvin's original painting for the Phantom movie posters, album cover, and other marketing collateral, as it appeared before Mr. Alvin modified it, painfully and by hand, at the direction of Fox advertising executives. As can be seen, it differs from the final version that was actually used (on the right) in two significant respects: First, in this pre-modified version, the neon lights form symmetrical swans on either side of Paul Williams' head, while in the final version, the swans are gone, and have been replaced by stars. Second, the title on the original version is merely "Phantom," rather than "Phantom of the Paradise." The modifications were imposed as a result of Fox's concerns about the Swansong threats (with respect to the swans), and (with respect to the addition of "of the Paradise") possible conflicts with King Features, which owned a comic strip entitled "Phantom". We at the Archives think this is a shame; the swans were a very nice, witty touch of detail, and we like the shadowing of the word Phantom in the background, which is obliterated by the addition of "of the Paradise." The current whereabouts of this original painting, if it even still exists, are unknown.
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Grant childishly threatened to block release of the film, and De Palma and editor Paul Hirsch were forced to quickly make changes to remove from sight most of the references to "Swan Song Enterprises." In fact, the changes were so last-minute that some early prints of the film were actually struck prior to the changes being incorporated.
In some cases, references to "Swan Song" were covered up by hand, frame-by-frame, typically by "Death Records," the dead songbird logo, or plain black masking. While the best job under the circumstances was done, these last minute mutilations are pretty glaring.
A typical example is this one: here, as Winslow approaches Swan's office building for the first time, we can see if we squint that "Swan Song Enterprises" is the signage over the doorway.
Later, when Winslow is being kicked out by Swan's goons, and the camera lingers, the name "Death Records" has been matted over "Swan Song Enterprises" above the front door.
Here's how that looked originally:
It appears to the archivists here at The Swan Archives that, in at least a couple of instances, the film actually had to be re-cut to accommodate Grant's bullshit. For example, we are pretty sure that Winslow's walk up the Death Records corridor to the receptionist was supposed to be one continuous take, with the camera following Winslow all the way up the hallway and into the reception area...
...but as Winslow approaches, we cut away, in an abrupt, ugly and decidedly un-De Palma/Hirsch-like cut, to the receptionist for a moment, and then, by the time we get back to Winslow, he's all the way in the reception area.
Why do we have to cut away from Winslow as he goes through the doorway? Because if we hadn't, the "Swan Song Enterprises" lettering over the doors would have been visible. We know this because later, after Winslow has escaped from Prison, he comes here again. And this second time, on his way in, he's running so fast that no cut is necessary; instead, there's a momentary mask-off of the Swan Song name as Winslow pushes his way through the doors.
But, in the reverse-angle shot, as he heads back out, we see (in reverse) the lettering we weren't supposed to see.
It's a shame that the whiny Grant was able to force the imposition of this cinematic vandalism, which has the overall effect of downplaying Swan's omnipotence. With most references to the larger Swan Song Enterprises empire eliminated, Swan is reduced from being a media mega-baron to merely a successful record company owner. (In theory, De Palma and producer Ed Pressman could have resisted, but they were under tremendous pressure from Fox to "solve" all the film's legal problems as quickly and quietly as possible so that the film could be released on time; it was, similarly, the pressures of the release schedule and the sensitivity of the negotiations with Fox, rather than the merits of the claim, that resulted in Phantom's financier Gustave Berne agreeing to pay some up-front cash, and a portion of his back-end participation, to MCA-Universal to dispose of that studio's claims that Phantom hewed too closely to their Phantom of the Opera storyline.)
Even worse, though, were the alterations that it appears were made, just before release, to the record-press scene.
In this sequence, Winslow stumbles into Swan's record factory, where there are piles of boxes. On each box there's a label showing, from top to bottom, "Swan Song", the dead songbird logo, and "Death Records". The camera is following Winslow as he moves pretty quickly, though, and so these "Swan Song" labels aren't seen very clearly.
As Winslow is preparing to dynamite the record press, he is interrupted by an armed security guard who, with his gun drawn, yells, "Hey, get away from that record press!", startling Winslow and causing him to fall into the press. We see Winslow begin to get the Juicy Fruits' Faust (in early drafts of the script, the song was "All Day Sucker" -- which of course is a perfect description of Winslow) permanently burned into the side of his head...and then, suddenly, Winslow is back outside the factory, in the parking lot, heading for the East River so he can jump in and cool his burning head. (The shot of Winslow splashing into the water is one of only two shots in the film in which a stuntman stood in for Finley, who was not willing to take a dive into the East River.)
How did Winslow escape the armed security guard? It's never explained. It appears that Winslow has been shot -- as he spills into the river, we see blood apparently coming from his abdomen, on the opposite side of his body from his headwound.
Indeed, the newspaper (although not a paragon of reliability) reports that he was shot by the security guard. And, here's a shot that doesn't appear in the final edit showing the security guard's gun being fired, and here's a little sequence (also not in the film) showing Winslow running in the factory, after having his head mooshed, towards his confrontation with the guard.
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Click the thumbnail above to view the clip in a pop-up window (requires QuickTime player 5.0.2 or higher).
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So what happened here? Why don't we see Winslow being shot, and find out how he escaped the guard? (And were his vocal chords damaged by the record press, or by a gunshot to the throat?) It's probably because as he was being shot, and perhaps as he overpowered or escaped the guard, there were dozens of boxes clearly visible with the "Swan Song" logo in the frame, and there was just no way to mask them all...so the sequence had to be removed. As can be seen here, the area was littered with these boxes.
Another sequence that suffered the Swan Song treatment is Beef's unveiling at the airport. Here, as Philbin approaches the plane, we can dimly see "Swan Song" written on the podium in the distance.
(No, the guy on the right is not Meat Loaf.)
As we get closer, however, the podium has the dead songbird where the "Swan Song" lettering had been.
Here's what it looked like before the alteration.
Next, as we're about to pan over to Beef's coffin, the film suddenly gets grainy, as if it had been shot on 16mm stock.
What's going on here, it appears, is that Hirsch was forced to zoom in on the top half of the frame (yielding the graininess) to avoid having "Swan Song" visible as the shot pans...it's much harder to obliterate the "Swan Song" wording as the camera is moving than when it's still.
Oh, and hey, while we're at it, here's how it looked in 1919, in the scene from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari that appears to have served as the inspiration for Beef's unveiling.
Finally, many of the TV monitors have little dead songbirds superimposed over labels that had presumably said "Swan Song".
Still, the Swan Song name does show up here and there.
On cameras
On a poster
On Beef's towel
On Swan's video player
And over the factory entrance
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All inquiries should be directed by email to archivist at swanarchives.org. The words "grand guignol" appear nowhere on this site. All website text, design, and coding is Copyright 2006-2008, Ari the Principal Archivist. No claim is made to the copyrighted works, trademarks or service marks of 20th Century Fox or A&M Records, and The Swan Archives is in no way affiliated with either company.
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