Release
It was a wonderful premiere and it was absolutely packed. Everybody cheered and I remember leaving the cinema and the manager said, "You get a picture like this and they start queuing up at four o'clock in the morning." We went back to the Hilton for a fabulous party, where they had made all the vehicles in ice. The head of United Artists said to me, "I don't know whether it's going to make more money than Bond or not, I can't decide" ... The next day, the Dominion at Tottenham Court Road had about ten people in it.
Gerry Anderson (2001)When filming for Thunderbirds Are Go concluded in June 1966, four episodes of Series Two had been completed on the monthly shooting schedule. Two additional episodes of Series Two, "Ricochet" and "Give or Take a Million", were filmed by "A" and "B" Units respectively. By December, Lew Grade had failed to sell the TV series to American broadcasters, recommending to Gerry Anderson that AP Films cancel production on Thunderbirds after the completion of six episodes for Series Two and start preparation for a new series, which would become Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. For the development of this series, the staff of AP Films, on the advice of Merchandising Executive Keith Shackleton, agreed to change the name of the company to "Century 21 Productions", a name first carried by Thunderbirds Are Go to associate the film more closely with the related Anderson comic TV Century 21. Thunderbirds Are Go became the first Anderson project to be publicised, in full, as "A Gerry Anderson Century 21 Production".
Thunderbirds Are Go was screened for United Artists executives to a positive response before receiving its premiere at the London Pavilion in Piccadilly on 12 December 1966. Opening at a gala for the Barnardo's Charity, several crew and actors were in attendance, including Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, Grade, Cliff Richard and his sister Donella and The Shadows. The exterior of the Pavilion, adorned with neon and representations of the Thunderbird machines, led into the foyer in which puppets and models from the film had been put on display, with publicity posters promising audiences "The Most Advanced Spacecraft Ever Created" and stipulating that "Adults Should Be Accompanied By Children". The Band of the Royal Marines provided a rendition of the "Thunderbirds March" both before and after the screening.
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Famous quotes containing the word release:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“If I were to be taken hostage, I would not plead for release nor would I want my government to be blackmailed. I think certain government officials, industrialists and celebrated persons should make it clear they are prepared to be sacrificed if taken hostage. If that were done, what gain would there be for terrorists in taking hostages?”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)