Overview

On Friday, July 27, 1984, MTV headed to Hollywood for the A-list red-carpet premiere and booze-fueled afterparty for Prince's seminal rock film "Purple Rain." Eddie Murphy showed up sporting a leopard-print blazer, a bare chest and a leather bandana tied around his neck. Pee-wee Herman drove up in a hot-rod-flamed clown car and busted into a nasally version of "When Doves Cry." And Prince himself — his "royal badness," as the VJ Mark Goodman declared — arrived in a purple stretch limo and, flanked by beefy bodyguards, sashayed down the carpet carrying a single rose.