15 Fascinating Facts About City Slickers That Were Definitely "Not In The Brochure"

Billy Crystal is a comedic genius that has so many amazing and iconic roles. Whether you are watch The Princess Bride, Monsters Inc or When Harry Met Sally, everything he does is basically perfect but one of his greatest movies has to be City Slickers.

This movie was filled with comedy heroes doing a lot of strange stunts that weren't really as popular in movies as they used to be. Try and think of another western made in the 90s... Not a lot of them huh?

The movie is incredible and there is a lot of secrets and pieces of trivia that you will absolutely find fascinating. Check it out!

1. Billy Crystal loved the horse he rode

The horse was named Beach Nut and and he loved it so much he bought him after filming was done. They brought him back for the sequel City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold for Crystal to ride again.

2. He performed all of his own stunts

Move over Tom Cruise, you aren't the only stuntman in Hollywood! Billy Crystal did all of his own stunts including the scene where he gets dragged by a cow.

3. Billy actually assisted delivering a calf

To get the shot of Norman being born, Crystal had to film this scene several times. There are some shots where the calf is actually a puppet, and then when it is getting to its feet for the first time that is actually real footage. Crystal was actually on site for a real delivery in Colorado and assisted so they could get the shot.

4. Bruno Kirby (Ed) was actually SUPER allergic to horses

He had to get injections each day they were filming around the horses so that he could actually get through the scene.

5. Billy Crystal's children in the movie are pretty notable

His son in the movie is played by none other than Jake Gyllenhaal and his daughter in the movie is his real daughter Lindsay Crystal.

6. Jack Palance (Curly) was exactly who Billy had in mind when developing the project

Crystal had Palance in mind from the start, but when it almost didn't work out he found another actor. Palance eventually became available and it all worked out. Apparently Palance loved the script right from the start and was very excited to make this movie.

Check out the next page to see which part of the movie was based in real life and why one of the cast members refused horseback riding lessons!

7. Translating the title into other languages proved to be difficult

They tried to translate the title for France and Greece but the titles didn't really have the same effect. In France it became "La Vie, L'Amour, Les Vaches" which translates to "Life, Love, and Cows". In Greece it was a bit more complicated and became "Ti ekanes baba stin agria dysi?" which translates to "So what did you do in the Far West, Dad?"

8. Rick Moranis was supposed to be in this movie

Rick Moranis had actually been cast in a pretty big role but when his wife was diagnosed with cancer he decided to leave Hollywood and focus on family.

9. Billy Crystal's hat caused some controversy

Everyone knew that Billy Crystal was a huge New York Yankees fan but in the movie his character wears a New York Mets hat. Crystal explained that the reason he did this was because the New York Mets had made a huge contribution to the annual Comic Relief Charity so he wanted to honor them.

10. Crystal co-wrote the movie but gets no credit

For some reason he didn't get on-screen writing credit for the movie even though he co-wrote it.

11. The first movie Billy Crystal saw featured his costar

His father ran a jazz label and so Billy Crystal met Billie Holiday who took him to go see his first movie. That movie was Shane (1953) which starred Jack Palance.

12. The birthday call from his mom was based on real life

Billy Crystal actually gets a phone call around 5 a.m. on his birthday from his mother. She would tell the entire story of his birth which he says is word-for-word what's in the movie.

13. Daniel Stern refused to take riding lessons

He wanted the inexperienced Phil to be more believable so he didn't want any lessons to help him get better.

14. Another real story is in the movie

The story about Billy Crystal's character's best day is something that really happened to him. He actually did go to that Yankee game with his dad and he has a signed program from Mickey Mantle. He actually got it signed a second time 20 years later when they were both on a talk show together.

15. Jack Palance got into trouble for comments he made about Billy Crystal at the Oscars

When Jack was interviewed at the Oscars after the movie came out he said "I crap bigger than Billy Crystal!" and everyone thought it was some kind of weird insult. Turns out it was just a quote from the movie that no one caught at the time. They made a big deal out of nothing!

Have you seen this movie? It's one of the greats and I recommend going back and watching it again!

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