Jack Harris: Father of the Blob (2015)
Researched and Written by Mark Ashton
D/O/M Neile Adams November 1956
Filming of Blob per Adams February 1958
McQueen died of mesothelioma in Mexico on Nov. 7, 1980. One of his last visitors was Rev. Billy Graham. Graham told Irvin Yeaworth that McQueen was residing in a sparsely furnished cabin outside Mexico City. On the wall was one piece of art; the poster for The Blob.
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McQueen had made 30 feature length films including the critically acclaimed Bullitt, The Sand Pebbles, The Magnificent Seven, Great Escape and Papillon.
The script for the film [The Blob] was written in 1953 in Chester Springs. Davis was a frequent visitor. He needed the script to search for financial backing to make the film. He was known in the film distribution world, but this was his first effort to make a movie.
Disney, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers all declined to take on the film.
However, Jack Harris took on the role as the producer, becoming the ‘Father of THE BLOB’.
Jack Harris took a $15,000 mortgage on his house and then made a deal with DeLuxe Labs to help with production costs. Harris and Michael Friedman cobbled together the rest of what was projected to be $100,000 in costs.
Next was casting. Harris saw McQueen in a bit part on Playhouse 90 (a TV show) playing with Ralph Bellamy and William Shatner.
When Harris approached Yeaworth about McQueen, Yeaworth said he was known as a troublemaker.
Yeaworth had recently hired McQueen’s new wife Neile Adams to do work for Valley Forge and McQueen’s very presence on set during the filming had alienated the Valley Forge Films entourage.
Two days later, Harris was on Broadway for a show called “Hat Full of Rain” when McQueen was substituted for Ben Gazzara in the performance. Harris was again impressed and decided to push Yeaworth to take on McQueen.
Aneta Corsaut was selected after 50 other leading women were tested. Her “test” had been an interview at 30th Street station in Philadelphia.
The production company also added some players from New York in the secondary roles and went to the Hedgerow Theater to find people who would fill out the cast.
As the filming started the working title was “The Molten Meteor.” McQueen proved to be all the trouble Yeaworth had predicted.
He was instantly arrested for reckless driving and Harris was summoned to help bail him out figuring that McQueen might understand better if the actual film “Producer” was coming to do the job.
Harris told McQueen the MG Roadster he was arrested in, would be “mothballed” (put into storage for a while) for the time the film was made.
Harris relates that other Hollywood types reported that when on film, McQueen was great. Off camera, he was a disaster.
Yeaworth did not want his actors reviewing the daily screenings. McQueen and his agent insisted. Harris had to break up an immense fight over this topic.
Harris got them to compromise on seeing the progress every third day. McQueen rarely showed up after fighting for the right and when he did appear, he rarely offered input while ranting about his exclusion from the creative process.
As production was winding down, there was agreement that the title was awful, but no one had a substitute. Harris saw a reference to something called a GLOB but found out that cartoonist Walt Kelly had registered that name.
So, after 10 minutes, the production company arrived at THE BLOB.
The star Good News Productions found was a clear silicone material. 3M taught them how to dye it a color. The problem was that, left unattended, the dye would separate from the silicone.
There was lots of post production work to incorporate the BLOB silicone into the scenes as filmed. Meanwhile, Harris learned that the film was $30,000 over its $100,000 budget.
Michael Friedman was the person who found that money. Yeaworth had none, nor did Harris.
After filming, the wrap up party was at Harris’ 4,000 square foot house in Penn Valley.
McQueen came, praised the film, and wished he had asked for a percentage instead of a contract amount.
Harris thought he would end up distributing the film, but Paramount saw the movie and offered to play that role. But when the Paramount rep showed others in that organization, they turned the film down.
Harris also was not getting much play from his network of distributors.
Then a call came from the blue from the head of Paramount asking to personally see it. The response was an offer of $300,000 for a seven year exclusive distribution. A deal was made in late 1957. The movie opened in California on Labor Day 1958.
Paramount worked on improving the film and preparing the marketing. Paramount employed Mack David and Burt Bachrach to write a song which itself was a hit on the market. Meanwhile, Yeaworth saw it as a negative for the film.
Paramount also made a short intending to complement the film called I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. It was deemed a failure and discontinued. The BLOB could carry its own.
In 1957 Harris was called about whether McQueen was “worth the trouble” to cast in a TV series called Wanted Dead or Alive.”
After the California opening, BLOB opened in 300 theaters.
It garnered large attendance augmented by nightly jokes about such a strange movie on all the late night talk shows. Harris notes that modern films open to huge send ups and top out their first week.
It was a top 100 film for 1958 with a box office revenue of $5 million – 1950s movies would build audience over time.
