One of the unanswered questions regarding LET'S GO FOR BROKE is "Why was Cincinnati chosen for the premiere?" Producer Duncan told me he didn't remember and there seems no connection between Christa Helm herself and Cincinnati. Here, though, we see Frank Raiter (l, above), who, along with Chitra Neogy, was the villain of the film. The page below is from the 1972-73 THEATRE WORLD annual by John Willis, and covers The Cincinnati Playhouse season . The Playhouse performed several shows, all with a repertory company that included... Frank Raiter. The season ended in May of '73 according to the page and we know that LET'S GO FOR BROKE was shooting towards that same year's end. When talk came of a premiere engagement at the end of '74, was it Frank perhaps who suggested Cincinnati?
Okay, now THIS is fascinating! Best size and resolution I could get without spending a fortune to access the VARIETY archives but this is a trade ad touting the 1975-76 releases from Joseph Brenner and Associates and one of them is LADY J, the still lost, supposedly re-edited version of Christa Helm's LET'S GO FOR BROKE! According to our previous information, while Brenner had the project for a couple of years, it was never released, even after announced intentions to do so in 1977 in order to exploit her murder! But, as seen here, they clearly were planning on releasing it in 1975!
