Captain Beefheart vs. The Grunt People
1964 Version
Frank Zappa & Peter Occhiogrosso, The Real Frank Zappa Book, 1989, p. 54
Shortly after moving into 'Studio Z,' I heard about an auction at the F.
K. Rockett Studio in Hollywood. They were going out of business and dumping
some scenery. For fifty dollars I bought more scenery than I could fit in
the studio, including a two-sided cyclorama--purple on one side for night,
blue on the other side for day--a kitchen, a library interior, a building
exterior--everything I needed to make a cheap movie. Every piece that would
fit through the doors was dragged in, set up and repainted.
I ended up sleeping in the set for Billy Sweeney's Laboratory. In
the back of the studio, next to the toilet, I built a totally implausible,
two-dimensional, cardboard rocket ship.
I painted all the sets myself and wrote a script based on the people and
facilities available at the time: Captain Beefheart vs. the Grunt People.
The Ontario Daily Report ran a feature story on me and my project in
its Sunday centerfold--about how a weird guy in Cucamonga was trying to make
a science fiction movie called Captain Beefheart vs. the Grunt People. It
was probably that story which caused the San Bernardino County vice squad to
take an interest in me.
BAM Magazine, January 16, 1987
I had a recording studio in Cucamonga, California.
I went to an auction at a place called the FK Rocket Studios in Hollywood. This
was 1962. And for $50, I bought a whole bunch of movie sets. They just wanted
to get rid of this stuff, and so I trucked it out of there and brought it back
to Cucamonga and decided -- well, what the fuck? -- I'll make an independent
movie. So I set up and tried to shoot a movie out there and the name of the
movie was Captain Beefheart Vs. The Grunt People.
And about that time, I got a divorce and moved out of my house in Ontario
and moved into the studio. I was living in a recording studio and I had a sign
on the door that I had gotten from this auction that said TV PICTURES.
Paul Buff, liner notes for Cucamonga, Del-Fi, 1997
He had turned the whole studio into his vision of the B-movie spaceship.
I remember him vividly getting excited about it--asking for any junk electronics
I had, and taking meters and painting them day-glo orange and putting knobs
all over a board and painting it with different day-glo colors. The last time
I was in Studio Z, to go to the bathroom you had to go out of the cockpit
of this ship and crawl down tunnels underneath and come out in the bathroom.
Patrice "Candy" Zappa, My Brother Was A Mother, 2003, p. 52
Frank took over long time friend Paul Buff's Pal Studio in Cucamonga and renamed it Studio Z. I had always wanted to see the infamous studio and one day I got my wish. I was home from school one day, nursing a fever and sore throat (gee, I still got colds even though my tonsils are gone) when Frank burst in the front door! I just knew he was there to brighten my day, by golly. "Hi Candy, how are you, what are you doing home from school? Get dressed, I'm taking you to the studio." [...] We hopped into his mustard-colored 1963 Chevy Bel-Aire station wagon and off we went to Archibald Avenue and Studio Z. I was in awe as soon as I walked in. Being a sheltered Catholic school girl, this was awesome indeed. Frank showed me the props that he had built for a movie he had written called "Captain Beefheart vs. the Grunt People." There was what looked like a spaceship facade and a mad scientist's laboratory. Frank had finished the sets by 1964.
Ontario Daily Report, September 20, 1964
He has written a movie which he is planning to produce from the Cucamonga
studio. It is titled "Captain Beefheart." [The script] includes
the minute details of the planned film as well as the cast of characters and
their dialogues.
COQ Magazine, February, 1974
[The vice squad] came to
me because my studio received a lot of publicity in the Cucamonga area and I
was attempting to raise money to produce a science-fiction film called Captain
Beefheart vs. the Grunt People. They had a whole big spread on the studio in
the Sunday papers.
Besides working on the hideous little rock opera [I
Was A Teen-age Malt Shop], I was trying to raise money for a micro-budget
sci-fi film called "CAPTAIN BEEFHEART vs. THE GRUNT PEOPLE." [...] Captain Beefheart was a character I invented for
the film. His name derives from one of Don Vliet's relatives who looked like
Harry Truman. He used to piss with the door open when Don's girlfriend walked
by and make comments about how his whizzer looked just like a beef heart.
Captain Beefheart, The International Times (IT) #26, February 16, 1968
I was out in the desert five years ago and
i was sitting in a car and we were all stoned. Frank Zappa and I and a
bunch of other guys were there. Frank doesn't turn on at all . . . but anyway,
I was just sitting there and I started laughing and I had thoughts of this
name and I laid it on everybody in the car and Frank says: "Ah! Like you
know, that's great, we'll make a movie." So he said: "We'll make a movie
and we'll call it 'Captain Beefheart Meets The Grunt People'." So we started
work and we studied the script for a year and we wrote a thing and something
happened and the movie fell through. It doesn't agree with the things I
think now -- changed so much in that length of time. It's a good movie though . . .
tear on the dotted line, paste up rockets . . . it was really going to be
far out.
The Original Music
Society Pages #1 (US), 1989
Den Simms: You guys did this medley called "Orange
County Lumber Truck". At the end of that came the section from "Lumpy
Gravy". I understand that that part of "Lumpy Gravy" was originally
written as part of Captain
Beefheart And The Grunt People.
FZ: That was the theme for Captain
Beefheart vs. The Grunt People.
1969 Version
Jerry Hopkins, "Mother's Day Has Finally Come", Rolling Stone, October 18, 1969
Captain Beefheart vs. The Grunt People! This is a feature-length
film, presently in script form, written by Zappa in 1964. Zappa said that
thanks in part to Easy Rider and the Woodstock Music & Art Fair--"two
of several things finally showing the youth market really means business"--three
major studios have made offers to back the flick. Zappa also said that if
anyone had shown interest in the film five years ago, he would never have
played rock and roll. His "ideal cast" includes parts for, among
others, Don Van Vliet, who is better known as Captain Beefheart, an old
high school chum of Zappa's; Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf;
several of the Mothers of Invention; and Grace Slick.
1. Rejection notice of Captain Beefheart screen play (most recent
of a long series).
2. Sample page from original Captain Beefheart vs The Grunt People shooting script.
3. Costume design for Captain Beefheart. Hat is made from plastic
bleach bottle (crown). Brim is children's toilet seat with duck. Battery operated
fan attached at waist keeps horribly foreshortened cape in state of incessant
flaptitude (thereby making him look like he's going faster).
More scans of the 1969 script:
Pete Frame, "A Fine Madness", Zig Zag #8, December 1, 1969
Pete Frame: I gather that plans are afoot to begin filming 'Captain Beefheart versus The Grunt People', which Frank wrote some years ago. Can you tell us anything about that? [...] What's the theme? Who are the grunt people?
Captain Beefheart: Who are they, Frank?
FZ: They're these people on the Moon, who wear these clothes which are like burlap bags with fish and garbage sewn on them. They are the villains of the story, but turn out to be the victims of a government agent. It's a little warped -- just enough to retain clarity . . . like a mirror that makes your arm look a little larger.
1984 Version
Parts of the Captain Beefheart vs. The Grunt People script appear on Them Or Us
(The Book) (Frank Zappa, 1984), approximately on pages 118, 122-138, 180-185, 196 and 217-223.
Additional informant: Marc De Bruyn
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Albertos
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This page updated:
2010-09-23