I was asked on Friday, July 11, 1980 by Mr Feltner, while renting him a car, if I wanted to be in a movie. I'm sure I looked at him as if he was a dirty old man and he quickly read the situation and said, "Not THAT kind of movie. We are shooting at Earl Owensby Studios (which living in the area I was familiar with) and told me he would give me a line to say and $75. Sounded interesting, so I said ok, I'll be there. I drove to Gaffney on Saturday, July 12, 1980 to do my one line. In the directors cut he mentions that he asked the girl who rented him a car from Avis Rent a Car, me, to come down to Gaffney, SC to appear in this movie and that I rode down with him, which I did not. As I stated previously, I drove down the next day.
I had always assumed that the movie was never shown. Imagine my surprise after all these years, to discover that the movie was released and I was in it at around the 26 to 28 minute mark. The girl in the blue shirt in the Midway scene. I ended up spending the entire day. The monkey had gotten lose and they had to set up for the long shot on the Midway which was the scene I was in. It took over 2 hours to find the monkey, and another 3 hours to set up for the Midway shot.
I recall on the first take, after saying my one line, he yelled CUT! And asked if I could say my line less southern, as he didn't want the movie to sound like it was made in the south. I was a bit embarrassed but tried it again. Then I heard some one say, don't worry about it. When can dub over her voice later. To my surprise they didn't dub over my actual voice and they didn't cut my scene out of the movie.
After shooting wrapped for the day he asked if I wanted to go eat with him and the cast. I agreed and we went out to a local Steak House that served hush puppies. Don Stewart looked at them and asked what they were, cornbread??? I told him no, they were hush puppies. He nearly lost his mind laughing and asked me to repeat what they were until he had everyone at the table laughing at the word hush puppy and my southern accent. I won't lie, I was slighly offended. I can take a joke and laugh at myself. But when they started trying to mimic me and laugh, it started to get old. Mr. Feltner saw what was going on, he seemed to always be paying attention to everything going on even when you didn't think he was. He was extremely nice and somewhat paternal toward me. Being in a movie, even a sub B Movie, was an eye opening expericence. It does strip away a lot of the magic.
