Retro Records: The Story Of The Black Hole (1979)

Friends, the other day while finishing up work in the Vault – Rockford Jay popped online and brought up a discussion about 1979’s The Black Hole. Which eventually wound it’s away around to the two distinct versions of records that Walt Disney produced for the now cult classic science fiction film. There was the book and record version that offered a condensed version of the film’s plot – understandably cutting out both Ernest Borgnine and Anthony Perkins characters entirely – they only had 24 pages to get the majority of the story in after all.

The second record was intended for a more mature audience and not only did it feature sound effects, actual dialogue from the movie, it also had some of the late and great John Barry’s score from The Black Hole. In addition as was pointed out in the conversation by Brian Washington, a friend of Rockford Jay and myself – the narrator for The Story of the Black Hole was Percy Rodrigues – who also went under Rodriguez thanks to a misspelling in a program in his youth for a Broadway role. Rodrigues was prolific in film and television throughout the years, until his passing in 2007, with roles in the likes of Star Trek, The Plainsman, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and Mission Impossible to name a few. Although you might know Percy best for being the narrator of over 133 film trailers during his long career – including the theatrical teaser trailer for The Black Hole!

The Black Hole was Walt Disney Productions first PG rated film – some of that has to do with the language used in the film… but I think the real reason is how Anthony Perkins character of Dr. Alex Durant is taken out. This is something that the excellent The Story of the Black Hole doesn’t shy away from like the book and record version – and somehow only hearing the character’s demise is ten time worse than actually seeing it in the film. This is something that Brian alluded to in the conversation – as did Earl Green when he appeared on the the Saturday Frights Podcast Halloween Special IV. You do not have to take our word for it though as thanks to the this upload by Garry Davison, you can enjoy The Story of the Black Hole for yourself!