Re: Scenic and the C&TS, an Oral History, Part 5A: 1974, Biting the Bullet

Well Dirk, I don't know if I'll be "telling it like it was", but I'll tell like I remember it!

On the day before the start of the big race (700 miles over mountains, across deserts, etc.), just after the train pulls in to the Chama yard, the race contestants unload their horses from off the train and parade them around for the crowd of spectators to admire. There is a considerable amount of action going on at that time, including a scene where the Mexican character who has entered the race saves a little boy in the crowd from being trampled by Candice Bergen's rearing horse.

Well, the director wanted a little background noise to add to the excitement, and asked John Oldberg the superintendent, where the local music store was, because they wanted to rent a bugle to play cavalry charges during the action. John replied, "You've got to be kidding!", but told them he knew where they could get a trumpet to substitute for the bugle. He had seen me play mine down at the High Country with Clovis, his wife Nancy, and Cliff Palmer. They told me to go get it, and they would have someone to play it. The whole movie crew and 100 extras waited while I ran the 2 blocks to home, went up into the attic, and retrieved my sterling silver trumpet.

When I returned, they wanted to spray the gleaming instrument with brown hairspray to make it look rusty! They finally convinced me that it was movie hairspray and would rinse right off, so I let them. When I asked them who was going to play it, they said, "You are!" Now, except for a few minutes while at the High Country, I hadn't played it in six years, and was in terrible shape. They said it didn't matter, and to go ahead and climb up on top of Candice Bergen's boxcar and start playing cavalry charges.

As I climbed up the end ladder, I heard the assistant director ask the director, "He's the fireman, can he play it?" The director said, "Why not?" So I stood on top of the train playing cavalry charges over and over as they filmed take after take. Before long, my lip was completely shot, being so out of shape. They didn't care, and said they would loop the sound. Finally, it even came down to filming closeups of just me on top of the train, with lights, reflectors, etc. while the whole cast and extras stood around. I couldn't believe it!

I figured the movie offers were going to start pouring in as soon as they returned to Hollywood. But when the movie finally came out in the theaters, there wasn't a scrap of my big scene left -- somehow they managed to produce the whole scene, while they cut every view and sound of me out. And they didn't even have CGI yet!

So that's my story of "the face on the cutting room floor". I figure it must have been a union thing...