‘And the Band Played On’: The landmark TV movie turns 30

Susan King
·6 min read
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There was barely a dry eye in the house at the Los Angeles premiere three decades ago of HBO’s landmark AIDS’ film “And the Band Played On.” During the end credit sequence set to Elton John’s “The Last Song” was a montage of well-known people who had died of AIDS or were HIV positive including Ryan White, Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins, Rudolf Nureyev, Arthur Ashe, Michael Bennett, Liberace, Halston, Peter Allen, Denholm Elliott, Brad Davis, Amanda Blake and Robert Reed.

No wonder emotions were running high. Deaths were rising every year. According to Social Security Administration, some 37,000 people died of HIV Illness in 1993. And it would be three years before the introduction of HAART-highly active antiretroviral therapy-that is often called the anti-HIV “cocktail.”

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Based on Randy Shilts’ 1987 best-seller, “And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic,” the acclaimed film, which premiered on HBO on Sept. 11, 1993, was adapted by Arnold Schulman, directed by Roger Spottiswoode and featured a who’s who actors in major and cameo roles. “And the Band Played On” was nominated for 14 Emmys winning for Best TV Movie, as well as editing and casting

A chronicle of the early years of the AIDS epidemic, the movie shines the spotlight on a small group of people who fought prejudice, ignorance, indifference, and politics while battling the deadly disease. The press wasn’t interested in a “gay” disease and the Reagan White House ignored it. Blood banks turned a blind eye that there was an issue with the blood supply. Even the scientists argued who really was the first to isolate the virus. Matthew Modine played the central researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Don Francis, who was given the task of discovering what was causing this new illness while also finding a way to stop it.

Thirty years ago, many of the actors were eager to talk to me for my L.A. Times’ piece on “And the Band Played On.” Here are some excerpts from the interviews:

Anjelica Huston
The day she began filming her scenes as a pediatrician, one of the actress’ close friends had died that morning of AIDS. “I also had my hairdresser with me, who had been my hairdresser in films for eight years, who told me that day he had AIDS. It was the most heart-wrenching day. I didn’t think I could get through the day. It’s tremendously hard. I’m glad it got made. I’m proud to be a part of it. It should be difficult watching. There’s nothing easy about watching people die. It’s a grim time. If we don’t take responsibility, who the hell is going to take responsibility?”

Swoosie Kurtz
“Every actor I know just wanted to be in it,” said Kurtz, who played a wealthy San Francisco woman who contracts AIDS through a blood transfusion. “it’s different than being cast in a normal production, I truly would have done a walk-on in this. I would have been an extra.” Americans, she noted, “are so adolescent about sex. The entire homosexual community makes them nervous.”

Lily Tomlin
Whoopi Goldberg was set to play Selma Dritz, the San Francisco public-health official who was resolute in her efforts to convince experts that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease. When Goldberg became ill, Tomlin quickly stepped into the role. She also got the opportunity to speak with Dritz. “She was very reserved and dignified. I wish I had the opportunity to have spent more time with her.” The movie, she related, excelled in showing the “competitiveness of the whole research field. I knew about that, but you never see it depicted. The smallness of people withholding information so they can be identified with the discovery. Their willingness to sacrifice everything for that ego. The bureaucracy of the blood banks and the small-mindedness-it’s staggering, actually.” Tomlin added that HIV-positive and people living with AIDS appeared in the film and were also hired as consultants. “The irony was that many people were made up, so you didn’t know who was sick and who wasn’t.”

Phil Collins
The pop star, who had a small role as an owner of a San Francisco bathhouse, was inspired to write a song for his latest album. “It’s about how I felt after I read the script and what went on. I actually met a lady who is a fan of mine, who lives in Vermont. She had AIDS and wanted to meet me before she died. We spent a few hours down in the studio, just talking together. Having done the film , I wrote this song about an imaginary character. It’s a man in the song. One of the lyrics is ‘If they told the truth. This guy might be here today. AIDS was just ignored. People thought it would go away, like the blood banks.”

Ian McKellen
McKellen felt that Great Britain looked at AIDS in a different way. “We are slightly protected because of the National Health Service,” said McKellen, who played San Francisco gay rights activist Bill Kraus. “Anybody needing treatment gets free medical treatment and medication, so much of the continuing distress in the U.S. of people not having adequate insurance has never applied here. It certainly was unusual to be involved, as a gay man, in a project which was very close to home and to find everybody working on it to be totally supportive. Often, one would be in a situation where the majority of actors in any one scene were gay. We are living in the time of AIDS. When the history of this part of the 20th century is written, the judgement will be made: “What did they do about AIDS?’”

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