Shorty The Pimp - 1974 Blaxploitation Film

It's been over a year and a half since I created this thread, but I have found some new information regarding this film since then. I finally imported a CD copy of the soundtrack that Ace put out in 1998. I was hoping there was more information in the booklet about the film, and thankfully there was!

The write-up seen below comes from a role outline that the film's director Morton Schulman gave to Don Julian & The Larks. Based on this outline, I am assuming that the band would play a central role in the film. If the rumoured rough cut hasn't been found in over 50 years, then maybe at least the script could be found? I'm not sure. At least we have this!

"Don Julian & the Larks appear as a lounge band called The blue Famingos. They are caught up in a gang war between Shorty the Pimp and his sidekick and muscle, Vato, with the East LA gang, El Chulos, led by Louie 'The Lover' Lopez, both of whom try to manage the band. The band will first be seen as they perform at Louie's club early in the plot. Shorty persuades them to come over to South Central and give it a shot, thereby annoying Louie who retaliates, threatening the band if they do not play at his club. The band soon get tired of this and instead play at a hippy joint where they encounter some bikers, who, after showing total hostility, are eventually converted to the band's infectious sound. However both Shorty and Louie catch up with them and, in a bizarre scene with the head biker mediating, decide to co-manage the band.

The co-managers soon find out that it's a tough job, and that all of their schemes to use the band are thwarted. They try to smuggle drugs in the guitarist's amp, and unaware of this scam, he sells it. They then try to use the band to attract groupies for pimping purposes and end up with a bunch of kooky Valley girls who snort all their coke and go back to daddy. The next step is when they decide to try to break into the record industry with the band. That scene involves the enticement of a bunch of top white A&R guys to the seediest LA lounge to persuade them to sign the band with the promise of lotsa 'coke and broads'. They are confronted with the Blue Flamingos playing top notch LA Lounge Funk cover versions, as advised by Shorty and Louie, who don't reckon that the new funky stuff that the band write will impress the A&R dudes. Shorty says at this point "you gotta have something that they can relate to!" The 'A&R scene' involves confrontations between the clean cut but drugged up A&R guys and the brothers of South Central. Shorty and Louie decide to hold out on the drugs until after the band have played to make sure that the A&R guys hang around the joint long enough to listen. They are unaware that this sudden on-rush of reality in the face of a bunch of guys playing LA Lounge Funk totally freaks out the A&R guys, which leads to a mass rush for the door, only to realize that their limos have been heisted. We then see them trying to catch a bus back to their part of town.

The denouement for Shorty and Louie comes when the band are discovered by a sharp female New York lawyer Dorothy Fenstein, who was given a tape by her dealer, (Don's character cousin). She gets them a record deal based on their own material and at last Shorty the Pimp becomes famous as the track named after him zooms up the charts."

Since the version of the CD I had was not on Discogs, I had to create a new page for it. Included on the release page are brand new scans of the booklet, disc and insert. For more information, please visit the Discogs page: www.discogs.com/release/27271416-Don-Julian-The-Larks-Shorty-The-Pimp