Remembering the 1983 comedy D.C. Cab -

The National Archives may have the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, but a vintage bookstore in Baltimore has another piece of American history: the screenplay for “D.C. Cab.” — three copies of the screenplay, in fact, plus a draft of the precursor to the 1983 movie called “Capitol Cab.”

The Constitution is not for sale, but Kevin Johnson of Royal Books would be happy to sell you the “D.C. Cab” material.

Johnson’s store specializes in ephemera, especially rare items connected to the film industry. (He handled the sale of noir author James M. Cain’s papers.) When he posted photos of the “D.C. Cab” scripts on his Facebook page, he was surprised by the reaction. Numerous friends weighed in with memories of seeing the film shot here and then seeing it in theaters.

“D.C. Cab” may not be “Citizen Kane,” but the R-rated comedy has its charms, with a cast that includes Mr. T, Gary Busey, Marsha Warfield, Paul Rodriguez, Bill Maher and Charlie Barnett, a comic many had pegged to be the next Eddie Murphy. (Barnett died in 1996.)

The Washington Post’s film critic, Gary Arnold, wrote: “‘D.C. Cab’ jumps you in the spirit of a big, shaggy and affection-craving pooch. You may wish it weren’t quite so sloppily demonstrative, but it’s too full of zest and good will to be resisted.”

And it was set in Washington.

We may be the most important city in the most important country in the world, but we still get excited at seeing ourselves on the big screen. Watch “D.C. Cab” and you’ll glimpse parts of the city that are still here — a bucket band on the Mall; the Florida Avenue Grill; the Cardozo High marching band — and things that aren’t.

There’s protester Concepcion Picciotto holding her vigil in front of the White House, next to a sign that reads “As an act of sanity ban all nuclear weapons or have a nice Doomsday.” There’s Garfinckel’s department store downtown, F. Scott’s bar in Georgetown and a quick shot of 14th Street NW capturing the neon of strip joints such as the Butterfly and Benny’s Rebel Room.

The movie was the brainchild of Topper Carew, an African American filmmaker from Boston who had come to Washington to study architecture at Howard University.

“When I’d been in Boston I probably had one Black teacher,” Carew told me over the phone. “At Howard, here comes a Black professor with a stack of books in his hands. It was very inspiring.”

Carew got involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and did design work for Resurrection City during the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. He started a nonprofit program in Adams Morgan called the New Thing that introduced young Washingtonians to filmmaking.

Carew’s film work came to the attention of Hollywood. The president of Universal Studios called him and asked if he was interested in making a movie about “Soul Train.”

“That didn’t work out,” Carew said. “But he said, ‘Is there something else you would be interested in doing, because we’re interested in you.’

“I crafted a story about this struggling, underdog, multiethnic cab company in D.C. that overcame the odds and succeeded. That’s essentially how the movie came to be.”

It was producer and co-screenwriter Carew’s first Hollywood studio film. It was director and co-screenwriter Joel Schumacher’s second.

“I should note that Joel and I spent a bunch of time in D.C. during the writing process,” Carew said. “It wasn’t like we just pulled stuff out of a hat. We actually hung around D.C. together while the script was being drafted.”

About three weeks of the eight-week shoot were spent here.

“It is thought to be one of the best movies about D.C. because it is so authentically D.C.,” Carew said. “I take great pride in that.”

Carew went on to produce “Martin,” the Fox TV comedy starring Martin Lawrence, among other projects. He lives in Boston — “I’m sitting in the house that I grew up in in Roxbury, which I have purchased,” he told me — and explores new ways to make films.

Johnson of Royal Books says much of the movie-related material he sells goes to film archives and university libraries that are interested in studying screenplays.

You may not have $650 to drop on a trio of “D.C. Cab” screenplays (second draft, third draft and revised final draft), but Amazon Prime will happily rent you the movie for $3.99.

Action!

Were you involved in the production of a movie shot in Washington? Did you stumble across a movie being made? What tales do you remember? Send the details — with “D.C. Movie Magic” in the subject line — to me at john.kelly@washpost.com.

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.

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