40th
Anniversary
Christine Woody (extra): We talked it over and said, we want to do that. We’ll go be extras. Benton: And the town was a lot smaller then and we knew almost everybody in town. It was like a family reunion almost every day and the food, I remember they served us really good food. Hilda Kracht (Homecoming Princess): I went to try-out, I think it was at the EMU. I don’t know how many people went, there was a lot of people trying out. You had to walk on stage as I recall and they kind of said, “Ok.” You went on stage in a group of people and I think they were just looking for the extras, various extras, and they just kind of said, “You, you, you, you and you.” And they said meet at the Roadway Inn on Gateway, the bus leaves at 6 a.m. so be there about 5:45 a.m. We got on the bus and as soon as we got on the bus – once everybody got there they said, you’re on bus one, you’re on bus two and there were two buses. I was on bus one. So we were the first bus to leave and when we got there, they pulled me off and said you are, follow me, you are the homecoming queen and
that’s how it went. It wasn’t like a big tryout or anything. I think they just kind of looked at you and, you know – I had dark hair at the time and what not and maybe that was why they chose me. I don’t know. Sean McCartin (“Lucky Boy”): My mom was in a few local commercials and she belonged to a talent agency run by a friend of hers (Wilson). So she’s a part of this talent agency in Eugene and then I became a part of the talent agency as well and so I did, you know, some local commercials as a little guy or whatever as well. What I think happened was Universal Studios called this talent agency in Eugene and said, “Hey, can you help us get these extras? You know, these volunteers and also, here’s a few smaller bit parts. Do you have anybody that fits these descriptions?” And so I, get fit the characteristics of a scene and so they called me in for a couple interviews. And then I remember I got the phone call and they said, “Hey, you got the part.” Wilson: I needed 1,400 extras and I needed 400 that were already established in the shot from Eugene. College kids. Ok. Also, you know we let a lot of other location people have some fun that provided the locations or helped us at the
university. We invited them to be an extra for a day and get $2 an hour or something like that. Williams: The male extras had to cut their hair so that you can look the part. You can’t look like some wild guy, had to be clean shaven. Had to be what you’d expect to see in 1962. McCartin: I grew up in a very small town (Elmira), a single-parent home, on a farm. You know, in a very rural area. I was part of the hippie culture and I had really long hair. And in grade school I was mistaken for a girl quite often. The reason I mention that is because the first thing they did was cut all my hair off because you know, it was set in the 60s. And so I need to have a haircut so I got shaved and my girlfriend at the time broke up with me because she didn’t like my hair. I remember that was one of the casualties. No, seriously. I could tell you her name, but I better not. PART III: MAYHEM, MADNESS AND FUN
W
ith Main Street. shut down for multiple days, what seemed to be the whole town showed up to either be extras or at least watch the spectacle of what was going on. All that was needed now was consecutive days of clear skies in Oregon in the middle of November.
History continues on page 20
319 East Main Cottage Grove
Photo courtesy of Katherine Wilson
54 1. 942 .74 23
Wilson: They were creating the schedule and said, Katherine, what week in November does it not rain here? And I said that doesn’t happen. November, it like pours all month long. And my grandfather (who lived in Cottage Grove) could smell the weather. He could predict the weather. He was a farmer, like a third-generation farmer out on River Road. And he said, “No,
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great that we could bring our kids, that was the best part.