The Most Important Drive-In Movie Of Our Time: THUNDER ROAD w/Robert Mitchum!
Robert Mitchum had been arrested for marijuana and the studios backed off him. He used his own money to make a film about moonshine runners and proved- he was still money.
I have a THUNDER ROAD story. My comedy partner and co-founder of The Chicago Psychotronic Film Society, Del Close, was an extra in the film.
Being an extra is not a big deal, but I was at the Bar Double R with Del Close who had just finished shooting a scene for a new movie he was in. We met downtown at the live country music bar THE BAR DOUBLE R and I saw the record on the jukebox of THUNDER ROAD and played it. The Bar was the home of The Sundowners downstairs and above was the grindhouse The Woods Theater and the office of The Chicago Psychotronic Film Society was upstairs. It was fitting that a grindhouse theater, the film society and a country music bar were all in the same building!
After picking the song THUNDER ROAD by Robert Mitchum on the juke box I went to the bar to ask Del what it was like to work on the film and how many days he worked and a guy sitting at the bar said, "Kid. he's lying to you He wasn't in the film".
Like being an extra is a big deal.
Another guy chimed in the same. I started to respond and Del touched my knee and said let it go. I was about to say Del had just finished shooting a scene with Sean Connery for THE UNTOUCHABLES and Del said, "You will find out most of your experiences most people won't believe". I found out he was right.
Del was not an extra in THE UNTOUCHABLES, had scenes with Connery and Costner. He played a crooked alderman who named the group the UNTOUCHABLES.
If they didn't believe he was an extra in a movie, there was no way they would have believed he had just finished filming with Sean Connery and Kevin Costner!
Here is the Ballad Of Thunder Road sung by Robert Mitchum:
Robert Mitchum being released from jail for less than one joint of marijuana. Which wasn’t even his.
Mitchum was in trouble. Arrested for pot the actual story is horrific. The woman he was with:
Lila Leeds. She had a half joint in her purse. Mitchum didn’t know. Police arrested them both. How did police know it was in the purse? There appears to have been a brief moment where neither knew anything about the joint. Or half joint. My guess is an informer was given a joint to plant in her purse, smoked half of it first perhaps with her before she met Mitchum, then the informer put the rest in her purse.
I suspect the studios came in and told them shut up. Then fired them both.
Lila responded by doing an anti-pot film for the crazy ass Kroger Babb. It didn’t save her career:
Mitchum doubled down. No apologies. He put his own money into a film about moonshine runners, and for over 20 years in the South THUNDER ROAD packed drive-in theaters. This was not as received as well in the North, but in the South everyone loves NASCAR. And the original drivers, the founders of the sport, began with running moonshine. Moonshine has many myths around it. The reason however, it was illegal is no one was paying taxes on it. That’s it.
Thunder Road (1958) Original Trailer:
This is the moonshine still used in the movie, shot in Asheville, North Carolina. It was functional:
Watch THUNDER ROAD by clicking here!
A film crew with a Hollywood star quickly overwhelmed the town
Robert Mitchum in a candid shot with Asheville Sky Club owner Emma Adler, left. The Sky Club was the setting for the movie’s “nightclub singer” scenes, as well as much after-work socializing.
Local Memories
Fifty-eight years later, many people around Asheville still vividly recall the making of Thunder Road. Here’s a sampling:
“My father, Charles Elledge, was an educator and served as the principal of Marion High School in the 1950s. He also had a passion for acting and over the years appeared in various films and TV productions. He played one of the moonshiners in Thunder Road. It was a small part, but one he enjoyed. My dad had a big, imposing bearing, but [was] very congenial. He liked playing characters like this — he played Preacher Sims for years in “Horn in the West” in Boone — and he knew how to portray them with authenticity. He and Robert Mitchum became friends during the production.”
— Cherie Elledge-Grapes, Dallas, N.C.
“I remember the producers coming to buy some of their cars from my dad and uncle. I also remember both my dad and uncle having to go to Sandy Bottoms to teach them how to spin the cars out without running them in the river. A federal agent came to our house a few times looking for moonshine, as my family were moonshine runners after World War II.”
— Bill Parris, Asheville
Explosion scene filmed on Merrimon Avenue near what is now City Foreign Auto.
Click here to watch THUNDER ROAD!
“Perhaps the most exciting event ever to take place at the Sky Club was when Robert Mitchum came to town to star in Thunder Road. The whole town was star-struck, and one scene in the movie was shot in the restaurant. A couple of my friends took the entire week off from work just to be extras in the nightclub scene. Mitchum cut a wide swath [in Asheville]. He and his wife stayed at the Battery Park Hotel, and it was widely rumored that his mistress was staying down the street at the Vanderbilt. Mitchum spent most evenings at the Sky Club, though, drinking, dining and dancing with the ladies who absolutely threw themselves at this tall, handsome movie star. I witnessed more than one violent confrontation precipitated by a husband’s or boyfriend’s jealous rage, but Mitchum was big enough to take care of himself — and, after all, all he was doing was dancing.
— Jerry Sternberg
“I was probably 12 or 13 when the movie was made in Asheville. I remember that some local folks got some bit parts, like the well-known WWNC radio announcer Farmer Russ (Offhaus). I also remember a fellow Boy Scout I met at summer camp who was wearing a neckerchief slide carved from a piece of scrap balsa wood that he said was from some of the debris of a wreck scene in the movie where the car crashed through some rail posts. His dad had some connection with the location shot, I think. A classmate of my older brother at Owen High crashed his ’52 Ford trying to duplicate that 180-degree spin in the scene at the bridge.”
— Steve Norwood, Asheville
“I was an 18–year-old high schooler who ran into Robert Mitchum one night. As teenagers, we ended many of our nights at the Hot Shot Café in Biltmore Village for a late-night grilled cheese sandwich, Coke and a good bull session. All of a sudden, the doors opened wide and in walked Robert Mitchum and his posse. We were all stunned. They said nothing but strolled to a large table. They were a rough-looking crowd and probably had a bit too much to drink. We continued to stare, not saying anything.”
— Stan Cocke, Asheville
“I was present when the sports car club had an autocross event at McCormick Field and Robert Mitchum’s son drove the ’50 Ford being used in the movie through the gate in right field and around the track, causing them to halt the event. The announcer made a very sarcastic remark, and Robert Mitchum left.”
— Jerry King, Asheville
Publicity still taken inside the cabin where the Doolin character was hiding out from Treasury agents. The cabin, still available for rental today, is on Weaverville Highway in Asheville.
“My uncle was Howard Penland, who was raised north of Weaverville on Ox Creek Road. His wife, Clara, told me years ago that that there was a time when the folks who lived on Ox Creek Road and Reems Creek Road were concerned that there might be an illegal moonshine operation near the Beech community. The reason was that they would occasionally see a hot rod car headed toward Weaverville at a very fast rate of speed. They were relieved when they later learned a movie called Thunder Road was being filmed in the area.”
— Danny Starnes, Black Mountain
“My great-uncle Joe Gouge was a moonshiner out of Mitchell County. Our family surname is used in the movie with the character Stacey Gouge, but the actor mispronounces it. Our name isn’t spoken like it’s spelled, but rhymes with Baton Rouge.”
— Michael Gouge, Asheville
“NASCAR pioneers Fireball Roberts and Banjo Matthews of Asheville and all the guys that were there to build the cars were on the set. There were also a lot of active moonshiners around all the time.”
— Jim Mitchum
Watch THUNDER ROAD by clicking here!
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Behind the paywall: FAREWLL MY LOVELY starring Robert Mitchum
LA 1941- Private dick Phillip Marlowe is hired to find a woman named Velma! He is also hired by a man for protection when a stolen neckless leads to murder!!! Starring, Robert Mitchum, John Ireland, Charlotte Rampling, Sylvia Miles, Anthony Zerbe with Jack O'Halloran, Harry Dean Stanton, Sylvester Stallone
