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Sylvester Stallone has been
here reprising his role as Rocky in the movie Rocky
Balboa.
And so, it turns out, are
Rocky's pet turtles, Cuff and Link - and they are the same
turtles featured in the first Rocky, shot here 30
years ago.
Cuff and Link are alive and
well and living in Kensington, and they're still in showbiz.
(They have the hard shell for it.)
A Rocky Balboa rep
told me recently that the turtles used in this sixth
Rocky movie were making their screen debut. But Joseph
Marks and John "Red" Stuart, reading that claim in last
Sunday's column, called to set the story straight, and the
Rocky rep now acknowledges bad intel. Marks owned J&M
Tropical Fish, the store that doubled as the pet shop where
Adrian (Talia Shire) worked in the early Rockys.
Stuart, Marks' nephew and a sideshow performer, lives in the
now-closed store and cares for the turtles.
Marks has a signed note
from Rocky Balboa's set decorator, Robert Greenfield,
identifying the female red-eared sliders as the originals
and affirming that Marks lent them for Rocky Balboa.
While the twins did their close-ups on a set at Rocky's
"house" on Emerald Street, Stuart entertained Stallone by
swallowing a sword.
Marks says Cuff and Link
were dropped off at J&M after the first Rocky wrapped
in December 1975. The shop didn't sell turtles at the time,
but production workers wanted the girls - then about 5 years
old - to have a good home.
They got one. They frolic
in an aquarium decorated with a few rocks. Stuart feeds them
dry Meow Mix and talks to them. Not sure whether he reads
them Variety.
Over the 30 years, each has
grown to the size of a small dinner plate - more than 8
inches from tip to tip. Cuff's tail has a chunk taken out of
it and Link's shell is yellower. Stuart says they can live
80 years or more. (Visions of Rocky 20!)
Marks, who closed J&M last
year and now works at the GNC at 1711 Chestnut St., says he
saw Stallone in the fall when the movie's
star/director/writer was location-scouting near the fish
store, in a hardscrabble area under the El. "I thought to
myself, 'Should I go over and say hello?' I tapped him on
the sleeve and asked if he remembered me. He said he did. I
told him I had to close the store because of economics."
Marks mentioned that the
turtles were still around, and "two weeks later, I got a
call," he says.
In other Rocky Balboa
news, Stallone did the "Rocky steps" scene at the Art Museum
yesterday. That's the final scene before Stallone flies out.
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