TO LORD

Residents, Businesses,
Government
Of Dubuque Eager to Aid Filmmakers
(Continued from preceding page)
\\.i\ tii help us— people in city government,
businesses, everybody," DeWaay told the
Telegraph Herald.
Among the sets the movie crew is working
on from sunup to sunset to complete is one
that promises to have a certain permanence:
a 1930s bar the crew is putting up in the
hospitality room of Pickett's Brewery,
low .is only beer producer. The crew's work
is impressing the company president, Joseph
S. Pickett sr.. a former professional
football player.
"When I thought of Hollywood sets before,"
Pickett said, "I thought of plastic,
glue and tape; but that barroom they are
building is certainly no tinsel affair." He
said one of the brewery's engineers took a
look at the 1930s bar the other day and
reported that it would "last a thousand
years."
The script calls for a pub that union men
use for socializing and for meetings. Pickett
said that when DeWaay and his production
people examined sites suggested by the
brewery executives, no place suggested was
quite what the movie people were searching
for; so DeWaay offered to build the
barroom in the Pickett hospitality room.
"According to the deal," said Pickett,
"we can leave the barroom there or, if we
decide we don't like it, the movie people
said they will tear everything out and restore
the room.
"They are not sparing anything. They are
using 2-by-4s and 4-by-4s in places where
they could get by with a lot less; they are
building lattice work with staples, nails and
glue. It could stand up to almost anything."
Construction includes a 30-foot wooden
bar, booths, tables and chairs, a backroom
and alterations to the walls. What the Huron
people liked about this place is the 18-
foot pressed metal ceiling and the big cupola
at the corner of the building. The old
heating system, with its radiators, fits in,
too. The hospitality room is in a two-story
section of the brewery that was built in
1898. The second floor is used for offices.
The hospitality room featured benches and
tables
made from old wooden beer tanks.
Pickett estimates the construction of the
barroom will cost the movie company between
$10,000 and $15,000 and will greatly
enrich the hospitality room. He believes
that if his brewery keeps the movie set after
filming of the picture that the set will be a
real draw for tourist business.
"People will travel a long way to see a
barroom that was in a real movie set," the
brewery president observed. "A new hospitality
room could be built in other space
—or the movie barroom could be used as
a hospitality room."
And what do those initials in the movie's
title stand for?
According to a United Artists release,
"F.I.S.T." means "Federation of Interstate
Truckers." Then, is the movie the story of
the rise of Jimmie Hoffa and the Teamsters
Union? Who can say? It just might be the
story of any union leader who found in
the depression of the 1930s the social conditions
suited for a consolidation of power.
Whatever the real background for the
"F.I.S.T." action, it's certain that Dubuque
people are going to look upon it
as THEIR
particular motion picture and its boxoffice
take here should be phenomenal.
DES MOINES
flie Variety Club of Iowa Telethon raised
$231,358 for the club's intensive care
nursery at the Raymond Blank Memorial
Hospital for Children in Des Moines. After
19'/2 continuous hours on the air, the telethon
ended at 6 p.m., Sunday, March 27.
Money from this telethon, the third sponsored
for benefit of the hospital by Variety,
will be used to buy equipment for the nursery.
Many celebrities assisted in the telethon,
among them being Marjoe Gortner, who
became famous as a child evangelist in this
area at the age of 4. Prior to appearing on
the telethon, Marjoe visited the Adventureland
Theatre, where he smiled as he read
a yellowing clipping from a 1948 copy of
the Des Moines Register, the clipping telling
about the young evangelist preaching
to more than 1,000 people and shouting to
them: "You can't live for Jesus on Sunday
and like the devil the rest of the week."
Marjoe, now a film actor, laughed, too,
when he recalled the mythology that was
built up around him. Promotion for him as
a young preacher claimed that God called
him to preach at the age of 3, that he was
baptized by Jesus Christ as he played with
a rubber duck in the bathtub. His most vivid
memory is of his mother, with pad and pencil,
telling him what to say and that it was
all show business. He did as he was told as a
child because it was profitable; then at the
age of 14, after he had made a movie, he
walked away from preaching. Since then he
has transferred his charisma to acting in
films and on TV shows. At present he is
under contract to make three films for
American International Pictures and will
appear in "Viva Knievel!" which will open
around the country in June.
Fresh Promotional Ideas
Keyed Tom Wilhite's Rise
KESWICK, IOWA—Seated among the
rich gowns and black tuxedos at the Academy
Awards telecast last month was Tom
Wilhite, a native of this community. It was
less than 20 years ago that his grandmother
cut up two of her husband's shirts to dye
red and black so grandson Tom could wear
them in his magic act, where he began his
career by selling tickets to his basement
theatre and backyard circuses.
He now is 24 and is considered remarkably
young to be handling some of the hottest
properties in show business: Grouchc
Marx, the Oscar-winning movie "Rocky,'
the robot mime team of Shields and Yar-'
nell,
Peter Benchley's new film "The Deep,'
a film to be based on Leon Uris' nove
"Trinity" and "The Children of Sanchez,'
starring Anthony Quinn and Dolores Del
Rio.
Tom arranges special events to publiciz
clients (for the last 2Vi years he has beei
an account executive for Rogers & Cowan
a large Beverly Hills public relations firm'
gets them appearances on talk shows an>
designs promotional materials for mas
media and theatre distribution.
Tom's conversion from backyard promo
er to Beverly Hills publicist didn't takl
place overnight, however. Along with h
own small scale productions, he started ac.
ing in grade school plays. Then he learne
to sell the Des Moines Register to peop
of Keswick, following up this experience h
selling them magazines, then cars and tra<
tors (at a Main Street dealership operate
by his
father and grandfather).
At Iowa State University, Ames, To
tried risking other people's money whi
majoring in journalism and speech—co
vincing a residence hall association that
• * SINCE 1924 * *
MERCHANT ADS-SPECIAL TRAILERS
Trailerettes-Daters
COLOR—BLACK & WHITE 1
PARROT FILMS. INC
P.O. BOX 541 • DES MOINES, IOWA • 5030:
PHONE 1515) 288-1122
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NC-2 BOXOFFICE :: April 18, 19'