Whaddaya Know: This native of Newton is sometimes called “the most powerful man in baseball.” Who is he? (Answer p. 21) Inside: Summer Recipes
Vol 40 • No. 9
www.theactiveage.com Kansas’Award-winning Award-winningTop Top55+ 55+News NewsSource Source Kansas’
August 2019
When Hollywood came to town
Film caught stars, locals in '69 action-drama
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By Joe Stumpe BENTON – When a Hollywood movie crew arrived here to make The Gypsy Moths, the project seemed to have everything required for success: big-name stars, an acclaimed director and spectacular stunts. As it turned out, the 1969 flick bombed - unless you happen to be a big fan of skydiving. But its filming in and around the airport here still stirs fond memories for residents who took part or just watched it happen. After all, it’s not every day that Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman, Deborah Kerr and a full-blown Hollywood production crew show up in town. “I think everybody in Benton who was here at the time and who wasn’t working were extras in that
Photos courtesy of Bill Goffrier
Actors Gene Hackman and Bonnie Bedelia, director John Frankenhiemer and numerous stuntmen worked on "The Gypsy Moths."
movie,” said Rex Corbin, a retired commercial pilot and longtime resident who lives just off the airport. And not just Benton. Bill Goffrier was 11 and living in See Hollywood, page 16
See Steamboat, page 14
Seniors flock to CBD, but does it work?
the active age One afternoon last month, a 56-year-old woman walked into The Health Connection, a CBD shop on Douglas Avenue. Within minutes, she’d spent about $80 on a couple of cannabidiol products she’d never tried before but which she hoped would ease pain caused by arthritis. “I work with two or three nurses who have used it,” the woman, who’s also a nurse and who asked not to be identified, said. “They said it helped, and my two sisters have used it.” Similar scenes are playing out regularly across south central Kansas and the nation, thanks to the explosion of interest in CBD and the corresponding growth of outlets offering it. Nobody seems to know how many CBD retailers there are in
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this area. But counting shops where it’s the primary product, individual purveyors and businesses such as supermarkets and video stores that also carry it, the number is likely in the hundreds if not thousands. It’s also widely available online. CBD is a substance found in marijuana and certain hemp plants that can affect receptors in the nervous system. Unlike THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the psycho-active substance in marijuana, it does not produce a “high” when ingested. According to a 2018 publication by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, clinical studies have suggested CBD has “broad therapeutic value.” The paper’s authors conducted a survey of
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging or call your county Department on Aging: 1-855-200-2372
Photo by Joe Stumpe
CBD products are widely available in Wichita.
See CBD, page 6
Butler County: (316) 775-0500 or 1-800- 279-3655 Harvey County: (316) 284-6880 or 1-800-279-3655