Friday the 13th (1980) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - May 8, 1980

The movie that created what I call the 'Betsy Palmer Rule' regarding fame and pop culture imprint.

In 1979 the semi-retired Betsy Palmer found herself in need of same cash to replace her old car with a brand new used car. As luck would have it, her agent received a script and offer for her to do a few days work on a low budget horror movie. A job that would cover the cost of her getting a brand new used car.

Palmer read the script, deemed it a piece of crap, but took the job because 1) she needed that brand new used car and 2) no one outside of a few 42nd Street grind house theaters and lower tier drive-ins would see the thing.

One year later, Paramount Pictures released Friday the 13th on well over 1,000 screens across the United States and saturated the market with advertisements. The success of the film would eclipse and extinguish the wholesome aspects of her career and, to everyone my age and younger, she became known as Jason's Mom.

Short version of the rule. The crap job you take for a paycheck will most likely be what you are best remembered for.