After two seasons, contract negotiations with ABC Entertainment broke down and “B.L. Stryker” broke down and they wouldn’t renew our show. I have the nerve to call it “our show” because the crew at all levels, even peasants like us – I was working in the film industry as a scenic artist – had become like family.
We were depressed and disheartened. But most had moved on to other shows and Burt Reynolds had two productions lined up, “The Man from Left Field” and the TV series “Evening Shade.”
I had plenty of work to do on Left Field, which was filmed at the BR Ranch facilities, but Evening Shade was in Los Angeles. We built a full sized baseball park in an empty field for the movie.
A friend of mine, Gary Dunham, a prop assistant, was having treatment for prostate cancer so a charity baseball game was set up for actors and crew to raise money for his treatments.
Several of us were about halfway up the bleachers when we noticed Lonnie Anderson making a beeline toward us. After greeting us, she told us she was there to get cash.
She looked me in the eye and held her palm out. I took out my wallet, opening it to reveal a single $20 bill. Getting about half a sentence out, I said “All I have is…”
Whap! She snatched that twenty out of my wallet like a bird of prey. And laughed. Sure, try telling Lonnie Anderson “no.”
I was lucky. The guy sitting next to me had a single $100 bill. He DIDN’T laugh!
Mr. Burt also had tasked me with restoring the sets on the ranch which had been used in “Smokey and the Bandit 2” and were rotting and falling apart. They were setting up a paid tour with guides.
The ranch and studio facilities were west of I-95 in Jupiter, so many days I had to make the drive north.
So, you say, what does all this have to do with the title of this column?
One of my favorite people I’ve ever met is a man named Logan Fleming, Burt Reynolds’ ranch manager, right hand man and his personal Astar helicopter pilot.
There was a landing strip for the boss’ planes in the middle of B.R. Ranch and they used them a lot.
So you have to picture Logan: He was a tall, thin country cracker who could pass as the twin brother of Dennis Weaver, the actor who played the limping sidekick of Marshal Dillon in the old TV show “Gunsmoke.” (Am I dating myself yet?) He even sounded like Weaver.
“I’m a comin’ Marshal Dillon!”
One early morning in 1991, I stopped by the ranch office mainly just to see Logan and shoot the breeze. He was a little cranky from lack of sleep.
The airplane hangers had been converted to movie sound stages with the intent of renting them out for movie and TV productions. That would hopefully generate a healthy income.
Burt Senior (B.R.’s elderly dad) lived in a house near Sound Stage Two. The Logans lived in one next to it. They were both within 100 yards of the stage.
“Thom,” he sighed. “Those damn hippies are killin’ me!”
As I kinda looked at him bemused, he explained.
“Burt rented the stage out to some long haired rock band to rehearse, and they START playing at midnight full blast. They are blowing me out of bed into the wee hours of the morning! And they ride in here with them big motorcycles crankin’.”
The first thing that came to mind is that the studio rental thing must not be working out very well if they’re renting out to some local band to practice in.
I asked Logan who the band was, thinking I might know some of them if they’re local.
“Oh, it’s some bunch of hoodlums called…ah, the Allman something or nuther.”
That stopped me in my tracks. “The ALLMAN BROTHERS? The ALLMAN Brothers?”
“Yeah, that’s it.” and he muttered something else under his breath. He had not the slightest idea who that was. More of a Dolly Parton guy.
As I stood there trying to process this information, Logan asks me, “You wanna go take a look?”
Does a bear sh…..well, you know.
We headed over to Sound Stage Two and he unlocked the main door.
This is 9:30 a.m. on a bright clear Florida morning, and my brain couldn’t quite cope with the sight I was seeing. It was surrealistic.
There was a full live stage setup complete with giant lighting system. The guitar and bass setups were huge and the many guitars were sitting on their stands fully plugged in! The bass rig was four cabinets, each holding four 10” Eminence bass speakers….a total of 16 and the pile of power amps looked to be about 3,000 watts. And of course TWO sets of drum kits.
No wonder Logan got blown out of bed!
For a split second a thought floated in my giddy head. If I knew how to work the recording equipment, maybe I could add a solo or two. Yeah, right.
My highlight was Greg Allman’s beat up Hammond B3. On top was an ashtray with one cigarette butt and an empty Budweiser can. I sat at his keyboard and dreamed of what would not be.
Sure wish I had at least grabbed the beer can.
Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
