Billy Friedkin and The Exorcist

Not long after the Kirk Douglas visit, Billy Friedkin viewed Electra Glide in Blue to evaluate the sound editor’s sound effects work. Then he saw my title design and subsequently hired me to design the titles for The Exorcist.

As anyone in the business knows, when you’re associated with a big hit you’re suddenly the “flavor of the week.” So, somehow it seemed that everybody wanted me to design their titles. It was the start of a very exciting time for me.

Title card from The Exorcist (1973)

While designing the titles, Billy asked me to design some subliminal visual effects for use within the film. They worked great but he never did use them. They were too “on the nose.”

During the many months I worked on the film, Billy had praised me to the Publicity and Advertising departments so they asked me to design a special poster in several languages, a t-shirt, and make a presentation for the advertising campaign. They eventually used my key art advertising design but it was handled by another designer.

Then Billy required Warner Bros. to have me design the main and end titles from top to bottom in five foreign languages because he wanted to maintain the integrity of the design throughout the world.

The French language poster I designed for The Exorcist (1973)

On the international poster I was credited with a small line of type at the bottom. One day many months later I received a letter from a fan in Buenos Aires, Argentina who had seen the poster and was compelled to write and thank me for the effect it had had on him.

He wrote that “my mind, it fall out” when he saw the powerful Exorcist religious image. The letter I received was addressed simply, “Dan Perri, Hollywood.” Somehow, it got to me anyway.

Sometime later, Billy asked me to design a special gift for him to give to all the cast and crew. I created a three-frame 35mm filmstrip with the recipient’s name in the top frame, the title in the middle frame and the date, 1973 in the bottom frame in the Weiss Initials type I used on the film. It was floating in a 3” x 3” x 3” clear plexiglass cube.

It sat wrapped in black tissue paper in a black gloss paper wrapped 3” x 3” x 3” telescoping box. It was the quintessence of elegance and Billy loved it. We made over 100 of them but he never gave one to me – so, I made one for myself. It still sits on my studio shelf.

I was to later and for many years use this idea for gifts to my own customers to remember me by.

Want to receive updates when I post a new blog? Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram.