Sonny's Jacket Vs. Michael's Jacket (UPDATE)

A posting on Twitter by Glamorous_Matt featured a photo of the Xanadu jacket as worn by Sonny and the employees of the club in the final number….only, if you look close enough, there is a slight yet noticeable difference. This particular jacket is said to be owned by Michael Beck and it features the movie logo on the back with a corrected ‘X’ on it, used in pretty much anything related to the movie and soundtrack during and after their release. (see below)

If you have noticed during the final number, the ‘X’ in the clubs logo posted everywhere (including the wall sign seen behind Gene Kelly in the opening scene) looks ‘off’ compared to the final version we are all quite familiar with.

When I saw this posting, I realized that I hadn’t mentioned this detail before, so I better get on the ‘guessing game disgusted as an answer’ with this one.

First the logo with the off ‘X’ first appeared in that fold out color ad was placed in Hollywood Reporter and Variety in summer of 1980 and again at the end of the year (see below) so this variation did exist at the beginning of the production and by the time of the movie and soundtrack releases, it seems they corrected the ‘X’ to make it more cohesive with the rest of the logo.

The big question is, What’s WITH that? Why didn’t they have the entire logo ready, at least, BEFORE filming started?!

From what I can tell, THAT missed detail happened thanks to the production problems this film faced, it was one of many little production potholes that littered through the film, like seeing the camera in the Gene Kelly/Olivia number and TWICE during the final number, identifying the muses by numbers not by names and, a real biggie, they replaced a muse sometime between the ‘I’m Alive’ and the final number.

So, I suspect, judging from the chaotic pattern behind Xanadu’s production, I’d say that the different jackets were the result of all of that….and we’re finally catching up with some of the smaller details, both good or ill.

P. S.: Thanks (and congratulations) to Glamorous_Matt for the original posting and Kennith Anderson for prodding me in the first place.

UPDATE: I received a message from Matt who informed me that this jacket is a custom job. A friend of his made a patch of the logo and sewed it on a new jacket. Thus this is not a original. Well, this did bring out the question about that 'off X' in the first place.

Maybe there should a new Xanadu shirt with the original 'off X' and when you wear it, you see who's the hard core fan if they noticed that detail.