Broncho Billy

Academy Award | Live Action Short Film 1970

THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCHO BILLY
Academy Award | Live Action Short Film 1970
Starring: Johnny Crawford and Kristin Nelson |

Academy Award / Oscar TV Show
JOHN LONGENECKER. Producer - for Oscar Speech Audio Postcard click here |

THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCHO BILLY
Live Action Short Film
FOR HIS SENIOR YEAR project at film school,
producer JOHN LONGENECKER
formed what he called the Super Crew, inviting talented film students he knew at the University of Southern California cinema department to make a western short film that would star his friend Johnny Crawford and that would win an Oscar.
After BRONCHO BILLY won the 1970 Academy Award for best live action short film, Longenecker arranged for Universal Studios to release the film theatrically, and the studio made over sixty 35mm prints and distributed the short on a double bill with its line-up of feature movies each week for more than two years in theaters across the United States and Canada.
BRONCHO BILLY holds the record as Universal Studio's most financially successful live-action short film.
-- Writing Short Scripts | Chapter 6

Writing Short Scripts | Second Edition
by William H. Phillips | Syracuse University Press 1999
Press Article -- Getting Real - USC Cinema: by Jennifer Kelleher
DAILY TROJAN / University Of Southern California | November 30, 1999
...To some extent that was still the case in the 1960s,
when movie producer John Longenecker was a student here [at USC].
"It was very exciting and unique in the '60s," he said of the time
when USC was only one of a small handful of film schools in the country.
Longenecker made his mark here by winning an Academy Award while still a student.
When George Lucas was still relatively unknown, he inspired Longenecker.
Lucas had been visiting campus one day in 1968 and Longenecker struck up a conversation.
Lucas gave him this piece of advice: "He said that all the struggles with the cinema department
will be worth it if I can walk out of school with my film under my arm."
Longenecker took those words to heart
and focused his efforts at making a short film while in school.
"I started off with a blank piece of paper with the intention
of writing a story and making a short film that would win an Oscar,
and I did," he said.
His senior year project, "The Resurrection of Broncho Billy,"
won the Academy Award for live-action short film in 1970,
when he was only 23 years old. "Broncho Billy" holds the record
as Universal Studios' most financially successful live-action short film,
according to the book Writing Short Scriptsby William H. Phillips.
Longenecker remembers having no stage fright that night
as he delivered his acceptance speech
with then-department chair Bernie Kantor at his side.
"Right now, it really doesn't matter much
that I got a "B" for this picture.
But no hard feelings, Dr. Kantor,"
Longenecker joked that night.

JL Oscar Speech | Flash
That comment got a laugh from the audience, he said.
Longenecker thinks that today's [USC] cinema-television school
is too institutionally entrenched.
"Back then we were more free spirited
and less cutthroat competitive," he said.
Older men dominated the movie industry, Longenecker said.
"It was a locked-up industry of adults," he said.
"That all changed with Spielberg and Lucas."

Bronch Billy images - slide show