Long ago, about this time in 1975, San Antonio, Texas
About 40 years ago, I arrived at the shop early one morning, and found a madhouse of activity. Trucks, moving vans, RVs, etc, parked everywhere around the shop. Crews had been there since the wee hours of the night, completely rearranging the shop and sales floor. It was crowded, people that I didn't know were everywhere.
It was a film crew, and our shop was selected to be in a movie.
Back in the shop, there was a crowd of people clumping around a poor fellow who seemed to be getting overwhelmed.
It was Warren Oates.
I worked my way over to him, and mentioned that he could use my service manager office. It has a chair and he would be more comfortable there. He jumped on the offer, and escaped most of the crowd.
Out in the back lot, a few junk parts were on the welding table, crews standing around, they needed somebody that could strike and hold a long arc. I started to explain how, then got drafted into doing it. So, that became the backdrop to the movie's opening shop scene, with Mr. Oates strolling over to my workstall.
Later, I escaped to the customer waiting area, where we had a few snack and drink machines. A lady in a housecoat, pajamas and bunny slippers (obviously not a morning person) trundles up to me and asks if there is anything good for breakfast in there. As I'm explaining the offerings of the various machines, I do a double take, and realize that I'm chatting with Loretta Switt.
Then, a crewmember tags me and says that they need me at the parts counter. They wanted me to wear Wild Willie's shop shirt (that's another story) and pose in front of the cash register. The film director wants me to pretend to write down a customer order, then drop the pencil, turn to the cash register, and pretend to punch up a sale. OK, I can do that, and rehearsed it to his satisfaction. Now I have to stand there at the counter for nearly an hour while crews rush about and a flurry of activity goes on.
Then the director says 'action'. I do the pretend thing, and as I turn toward the cash register, this humongeous contraption with all these people around it starts moving to follow me.
What th....?!!?... I turn to face this oncoming behemoth, like you would in the moments just before getting hit by a truck, and do the 'deer-in-the-headlights' stare.
"Cut, cut, cut..." Director tells me not to look into the camera, pretend that it's not there.
Not there?? That huge thing?? Evidently, the crew managed to assemble a small railroad with a large panavision camera truck on it, for some sort of moving scene.
The second take went OK, with Mr. Oates in the backround, walking through the parts department. The wrong way! But, that's the way they wanted it, so it was a keeper.
I signed a release form, and got $5.
It took all day to film that 1 minute's worth of opening 'bike shop' scenes.
The rest of the guys were at the track that day, with a second film crew to do some track scenes with Peter Fonda.
We didn't know the name of the movie, or what it was about, until it was released later that year.
Race With The Devil
Here's some clips in my album: http://www.xs650.com/media/albums/2320/
Here's the first 2 minutes of the movie:
The rest of the movie is basically a mixture of horror and "How to destroy a perfectly good RV".
See how many bikes you can recognize...
About 40 years ago, I arrived at the shop early one morning, and found a madhouse of activity. Trucks, moving vans, RVs, etc, parked everywhere around the shop. Crews had been there since the wee hours of the night, completely rearranging the shop and sales floor. It was crowded, people that I didn't know were everywhere.
It was a film crew, and our shop was selected to be in a movie.
Back in the shop, there was a crowd of people clumping around a poor fellow who seemed to be getting overwhelmed.
It was Warren Oates.
I worked my way over to him, and mentioned that he could use my service manager office. It has a chair and he would be more comfortable there. He jumped on the offer, and escaped most of the crowd.
Out in the back lot, a few junk parts were on the welding table, crews standing around, they needed somebody that could strike and hold a long arc. I started to explain how, then got drafted into doing it. So, that became the backdrop to the movie's opening shop scene, with Mr. Oates strolling over to my workstall.
Later, I escaped to the customer waiting area, where we had a few snack and drink machines. A lady in a housecoat, pajamas and bunny slippers (obviously not a morning person) trundles up to me and asks if there is anything good for breakfast in there. As I'm explaining the offerings of the various machines, I do a double take, and realize that I'm chatting with Loretta Switt.
Then, a crewmember tags me and says that they need me at the parts counter. They wanted me to wear Wild Willie's shop shirt (that's another story) and pose in front of the cash register. The film director wants me to pretend to write down a customer order, then drop the pencil, turn to the cash register, and pretend to punch up a sale. OK, I can do that, and rehearsed it to his satisfaction. Now I have to stand there at the counter for nearly an hour while crews rush about and a flurry of activity goes on.
Then the director says 'action'. I do the pretend thing, and as I turn toward the cash register, this humongeous contraption with all these people around it starts moving to follow me.
What th....?!!?... I turn to face this oncoming behemoth, like you would in the moments just before getting hit by a truck, and do the 'deer-in-the-headlights' stare.
"Cut, cut, cut..." Director tells me not to look into the camera, pretend that it's not there.
Not there?? That huge thing?? Evidently, the crew managed to assemble a small railroad with a large panavision camera truck on it, for some sort of moving scene.
The second take went OK, with Mr. Oates in the backround, walking through the parts department. The wrong way! But, that's the way they wanted it, so it was a keeper.
I signed a release form, and got $5.
It took all day to film that 1 minute's worth of opening 'bike shop' scenes.
The rest of the guys were at the track that day, with a second film crew to do some track scenes with Peter Fonda.
We didn't know the name of the movie, or what it was about, until it was released later that year.
Race With The Devil
Here's some clips in my album: http://www.xs650.com/media/albums/2320/
Here's the first 2 minutes of the movie:
The rest of the movie is basically a mixture of horror and "How to destroy a perfectly good RV".
See how many bikes you can recognize...