The original ‘Animal House’ script based on Charles Manson
The 1970s were a time of cinematic experimentation across the board, with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese emerging with such classics as Jaws, The Godfather and Taxi Driver. But the same can be said for the comedy scene, too, with the arrival of the National Lampoon magazine that gave birth to an iconic series of movies.
Such comedies have become staples in households across America and the wider world, with the very best being 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and 1978’s Animal House. With the very first National Lampoon movie following the magazine, stage show and radio programme, a lot was riding on the success of Animal House, with the minds behind the film casting the biggest and best comedy talent to make sure of its acclaim.
With John Belushi, Karen Allen, Stephen Furst and Tom Hulce, among many others, the movie was helmed by John Landis and tells the story of a troublesome fraternity who tormented their dean as he threatened to expel them from college. So, how exactly does this joyous comedy link to the cult leader and notorious criminal Charles Manson?
The answer to this question goes back to the eccentric co-writer for National Lampoon magazine, Doug Kenney, a creative thinker who could stick pretty much anything he liked in the publication. Yet, outside of the thriving magazine, Kenney wasn’t all that happy, having recently divorced from his wife whilst struggling with drug addiction, leading Matty Simmons, the creative lead of the magazine, to come up with the idea of making a movie to give the writer some focus.
With all the creative freedom in the world, Kenney went off with fellow writer Harold Ramis and came back to Simmons with a bombastic comedy named Laser Orgy Girls.
Bizarrely, the story followed the antics of Charles Manson when he was in high school, with the cult leader engaging in wild sex acts on his quest to meet aliens in the desert. Unsurprisingly, Simmons objected to some parts of the story, including the fact that anything very sexually explicit shouldn’t take place in a high school, but had no problem with such things happening in a college setting.
Penning another draft, Ramis and Kenney got their friend Chris Miller to join them, with the trio sharing mad college stories, which eventually resulted in the creation of Animal House. Even though there is no mention of Manson in the movie, you can be sure that the basis of the film emerged from the thought of, ‘What was the cult leader like in college?’.
Sadly, the release of the movie didn’t do anything to improve Kenney’s mental health, with the writer tragically committing suicide two years after the release of the film.