CivilWarTalk Throwback Thursday, 3 - 25 - 2021

James N.

Colonel
Annual Winner
Featured Book Reviewer
Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Antietam 2021
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Location
East Texas
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Earlier this or last week there was a thread asking about reenacting other periods than the Civil War and I was reminded of this previously unposted photo taken at an Indian Wars event held at Fort Richardson outside Jacksboro, Texas from sometime in the early-mid 1990's; I'm at right wearing a M.1872 forage cap and the infantry is mostly in Civil War gear. However, I would like to draw your attention to the painted sign just to my right boxed in red which reads in its entirety A. PRECHT - LAGER BEER SALOON. This paint-on-canvas banner made by the set-decorating crew is one of my souvenirs from Glory, purloined from the Camp Readville set as seen below tacked to the end of one of the log sutler buildings in the background indicated by the red arrow. Following the wrap or completion of a segment on a vacated set it's not unusual for set pieces like this to mysteriously "disappear", and this was one of the few items I "appropriated" from that memorable venture! I still have it displayed in my laundry room along with movie posters from both Glory and Last Of The Mohicans.

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Anyone else having (preferably) old Civil War-related photos, mementoes, or memorabilia from reenactments, living history or other events or vacation or other travel they would like to share with us is welcome and encouraged to do so in this weekly thread!
 
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Like a director I know always says, "When your done filming you GOT to have a souvenir, everyone needs one from they're hard work!"

I know I've had folks begging me to let them keep props, belts and holsters as souvenirs.
The only other things I deliberately took were a pair of artillery lieutenant's shoulder straps and a leather over-the-shoulder map or dispatch case. I kept both after filming late-in-the-production scenes during the Antietam sequence which was actually filmed last. The other things were given to me as replacements for things lost or damaged on set; one is a gray wool Federal blanket to replace one stolen, the other a replacement for the sword belt accidently snagged and torn in two by Morgan Freeman during a scene on the beach at Battery Wagner.
 
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The only other thing I deliberately took was a leather over-the-shoulder map or dispatch case I kept after filming a late-in-the-production scene in the Antietam sequence. The other things were given to me as replacements for things lost or damaged on set; one is a gray wool Federal blanket to replace one stolen, the other the sword belt accidently snagged and torn into by Morgan Freeman during a scene on the beach at Battery Wagner.

I remember the story on the sword belt, and I've heard stories of people wanting to make off with a dead horse prop late in Glory's production but it being closely guarded.
 
I remember the story on the sword belt, and I've heard stories of people wanting to make off with a dead horse prop late in Glory's production but it being closely guarded.
I kept several items of uniform and equipment from Mohicans, probably the best of which are a British over-the-shoulder cartridge box and strap and a British waistbelt and its bayonet and "belly box". I found the larger box and strap laying where it had been abandoned by one of the extras.
 
I've done a few bits and bobs as regards TV and Movies as an extra during my re-enacting career, but this one must have been the strangest ... best paid though!

Our re-enactment group (SOSKAN - Southern Skirmish Association) was hired to make an advertisement for Birds Eye Southern Fried Chicken. It was the strangest day ... Birds Eye wanted around 100 Confederates, armed to the teeth, to march up Oldfield Circus High Street in Greenford, West London for this Ad. It's London, so nowhere to park, so we had to put all our vehicles in a Car Park a mile away, get kitted-up and then march, fully armed, down a main road to where the shoot was taking place.

No problem, except it was rush hour 8am when we started the march 😬

Well, that was something else. Marching down the pavement (sidewalk to youse 😇) in column of fours, fixed bayonets, at right-shoulder shift, singing 'Dixie', 'Bonnie Blue Flag', 'Yellow Rose of Texas' etc., to the utter bemusement of the folks stuck in a traffic jam ... car horns honking, all kinds of abuse coming from rolled-down car windows (which of course, we returned in kind,) until we got to the shoot.

The shoot for that scene took all morning. We must have marched up and down the road about 10 times, for about 7 seconds that was actually used. In the afternoon, half of us were required to drive four or five miles to a quiet residential street in Wembley to film the last bit of the Ad, where the plug-ugliest of us were required to congregate around the window of a house - I managed to escape that bit, being a handsome young thing at the time :whistling:

We were paid £90 cash each - they have money to burn those advertising budgets!

So here it is, the Advert in all its' glory ... hope the YouTube link works ... be a pain if I'd described all this and you can't even see it 🤔


EDIT: Hmmm, not working, here's the direct link to YouTube:

Southern Fried Chicken
 
I've done a few bits and bobs as regards TV and Movies as an extra during my re-enacting career, but this one must have been the strangest ... best paid though!

Our re-enactment group (SOSKAN - Southern Skirmish Association) was hired to make an advertisement for Birds Eye Southern Fried Chicken. It was the strangest day ... Birds Eye wanted around 100 Confederates, armed to the teeth, to march up Oldfield Circus High Street in Greenford, West London for this Ad. It's London, so nowhere to park, so we had to put all our vehicles in a Car Park a mile away, get kitted-up and then march, fully armed, down a main road to where the shoot was taking place...
I doubt we were particularly well-paid - it's been so long I don't remember - but OUR group was hired to make a commercial for some supermarket chain for their President's Day or possibly the 4th of July/Independence Day Sale. You all looked good - we were still in our farby worst "uniforms". We charged back and forth a few times waving flags - whether Union or Confederate I don't really remember, but it was likely Union, considering the holiday.

Another time we also traveled once all the way from North Texas to Washington, Mississippi (a little north of Natchez on the Mississippi River) to film a brief scene for a TV detective drama starring Ralph Waite called The Mississippi about a private investigator living on and working from a riverboat. The story was really STUPID and unbelievable as so much commercial television is, about a student at a Southern military academy who's accused of MURDER by putting a live round in his rifle during a reenactment. (Yeah, right!) All participants were supposed to be cadets at the military academy, so all us old farts were put as far as possible out-of-frame and photographed only in the masters with a few of our youngsters getting screen time. For that we were Federals and probably received Union scale which was about $45 a day then. Unfortunately (?), I have no photos or souvenirs other than memories from that particular event!
 
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Another time we also traveled once all the way from North Texas to Washington, Mississippi (a little north of Natchez on the Mississippi River) to film a brief scene for a TV detective drama starring Ralph Waite called The Mississippi about a private investigator living on and working from a riverboat. The story was really STUPID and unbelievable as so much commercial television is, about a student at a Southern military academy who's accused of MURDER by putting a live round in his rifle during a reenactment. (Yeah, right!) All participants were supposed to be cadets at the military academy, so all us old farts were put as far as possible out-of-frame and photographed only in the masters with a few of our youngsters getting screen time. For that we were Federals and probably received Union scale which was about $45 a day then. Unfortunately (?), I have no photos or souvenirs other than memories from that particular event!
One I missed due to having to work (Boooo!) was two days filming on some pond in Hampshire, where they shot the opening Ironclad on the James River scenes of that daft Matthew McConaughy/Penelope Cruz movie Sahara. I say Boooo! because of that old saying 'A bad day re-enacting is better than a good day at work.'

The lads who went were in two minds about it ... for the reason above but also many of them said it was the hardest couple of days work they'd ever done in their lives! I guess they were office wallahs :wink:

My own view - and that of everyone else I've spoken to - is that those opening few minutes are the best bit of the movie and the scenes look and sound really good, the shot clanging off the steel and the chaos aboard ship. Everyone you see in the background on board the ship and on the shore are the same fellers you saw doing the Birds Eye ad :thumbsup:

 
One I missed due to having to work (Boooo!) was two days filming on some pond in Hampshire, where they shot the opening Ironclad on the James River scenes of that daft Matthew McConaughy/Penelope Cruz movie Sahara. I say Boooo! because of that old saying 'A bad day re-enacting is better than a good day at work.'

The lads who went were in two minds about it ... for the reason above but also many of them said it was the hardest couple of days work they'd ever done in their lives! I guess they were office wallahs :wink:

My own view - and that of everyone else I've spoken to - is that those opening few minutes are the best bit of the movie and the scenes look and sound really good, the shot clanging off the steel and the chaos aboard ship. Everyone you see in the background on board the ship and on the shore are the same fellers you saw doing the Birds Eye ad :thumbsup:


This might offend someone, but I like that movie. Fiction, historical inaccuracies and all.

Any movie that mixes AKM's, treasure hunts, and Confederate ironclads is gonna please me!
 
View attachment 395289

Earlier this or last week there was a thread asking about reenacting other periods than the Civil War and I was reminded of this previously unposted photo taken at an Indian Wars event held at Fort Richardson outside Jacksboro, Texas from sometime in the early-mid 1990's; I'm at right wearing a M.1872 forage cap and the infantry is mostly in Civil War gear. However, I would like to draw your attention to the painted sign just to my right boxed in red which reads in its entirety A. PRECHT - LAGER BEER SALOON. This paint-on-canvas banner made by the set-decorating crew is one of my souvenirs from Glory, purloined from the Camp Readville set as seen below tacked to the end of one of the log sutler buildings in the background indicated by the red arrow. Following the wrap or completion of a segment on a vacated set it's not unusual for set pieces like this to mysteriously "disappear", and this was one of the few items I "appropriated" from that memorable venture! I still have it displayed in my laundry room along with movie posters from both Glory and Last Of The Mohicans.

View attachment 395287

Anyone else having (preferably) old Civil War-related photos, mementoes, or memorabilia from reenactments, living history or other events or vacation or other travel they would like to share with us is welcome and encouraged to do so in this weekly thread!
How much was a beer at that tent?
 
How much was a beer at that tent?
I don't know; I'm a teetotaler! Here's a photo taken yesterday showing the current location of the banner; ignominious, I know, but at least it's better than its previous location, folded and stuffed into a crate of reenacting gear:

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It matches the red-black-and-white-against-cream colors the kitchen, laundry, and mudroom are painted; above it are two framed Ansco posters from the 1970's of Lee and Grant and the framed movie posters are on the opposite wall above the pie safe/supply cabinet. A sad fact is that if and when anything ever happens to me, there is NO one who will have any idea what this and MANY, MANY other things are!
 
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I've done a few bits and bobs as regards TV and Movies as an extra during my re-enacting career, but this one must have been the strangest ... best paid though!

Our re-enactment group (SOSKAN - Southern Skirmish Association) was hired to make an advertisement for Birds Eye Southern Fried Chicken. It was the strangest day ... Birds Eye wanted around 100 Confederates, armed to the teeth, to march up Oldfield Circus High Street in Greenford, West London for this Ad. It's London, so nowhere to park, so we had to put all our vehicles in a Car Park a mile away, get kitted-up and then march, fully armed, down a main road to where the shoot was taking place.

No problem, except it was rush hour 8am when we started the march 😬

Well, that was something else. Marching down the pavement (sidewalk to youse 😇) in column of fours, fixed bayonets, at right-shoulder shift, singing 'Dixie', 'Bonnie Blue Flag', 'Yellow Rose of Texas' etc., to the utter bemusement of the folks stuck in a traffic jam ... car horns honking, all kinds of abuse coming from rolled-down car windows (which of course, we returned in kind,) until we got to the shoot.

The shoot for that scene took all morning. We must have marched up and down the road about 10 times, for about 7 seconds that was actually used. In the afternoon, half of us were required to drive four or five miles to a quiet residential street in Wembley to film the last bit of the Ad, where the plug-ugliest of us were required to congregate around the window of a house - I managed to escape that bit, being a handsome young thing at the time :whistling:

We were paid £90 cash each - they have money to burn those advertising budgets!

So here it is, the Advert in all its' glory ... hope the YouTube link works ... be a pain if I'd described all this and you can't even see it 🤔


EDIT: Hmmm, not working, here's the direct link to YouTube:

Southern Fried Chicken
That was fabulous!!! Thanks for sharing this!!!!
 
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