THE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF
THE HISTORIC TOXAWAY FOUNDATION

AUTUMN 2021

IN THIS ISSUE

Monarch Migration
Interview: Jessica Whitmire
Seasonal Business Tips
What A Time: Thunder Road

DON’T FORGET: DAYLIGHT SAVING ENDS ON NOVEMBER 7

A PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH JESSICA WHITMIRE

Mike Andress of the Exploration Local podcast series interviews Jessica Whitmire of Headwaters Outfitters.

As many of us know, the staff at this small family-owned and operated outfitter in Rosman, N.C., is passionate about sharing their knowledge of Western North Carolina’s natural resources, their love for the Appalachian Mountains, and the outdoor recreation opportunities found along the French Broad River Watershed.

Listen in here.

MONARCH MIGRATION

Every fall, millions of monarchs make their way down to the equator to flee the harsh winter conditions that would await them up north. On their journey down to Mexico, however, they need to make quite a few pit stops to fuel up on nectar.

A monarch sipping on a sunflower.

While you may have heard that milkweed is an essential piece to the puzzle of monarch conservation, equally as important are the main sources that sustain the adults during migration – fall-blooming nectar flowers.

Read the rest of the story on Conserving Carolina‘s blog, here.

FOR SEASONAL BUSINESSES

With the 2021 season winding down, we looked for some great tips and tricks for local businesses that operate seasonally — but even those open year-round can benefit from this list. Here’s twelve tips you can use right now:

1. Research what’s expected in your industry

2. Build what you learn into your business model

3. Maximize your downtime

4. Save at busy times

5. Watch what your competitors are doing

6. Get creative

7. Diversify your income

8. Embrace the reality & manage your stress levels

9. Create an event & content marketing calendar

10. Make friends with social media

11. Manage your employees’ expectations

12. Data insights are imperative

Read all the details here.

P.S. The Business Alliance of Upper Transylvania can help with many of these activities. Learn more here.

WHAT A TIME: MOVIE PRODUCTION IN HISTORIC TOXAWAY, PART 2

In last summer’s newsletter, we highlighted the 1948 filming of the movie Tap Roots in our area. Now it’s time to take a look at another time Hollywood came calling to film the classic moonshiner’s tale, Thunder Road, in the late ‘50s.

The condensed version of the story is this: An unrepentant Tennessee moonshine runner Luke Doolin (Robert Mitchum) makes dangerous high-speed deliveries for his liquor-producing father, Vernon (Trevor Bardette), but won’t let his younger brother Robin (James Mitchum) join the family business. Under pressure from both out-of-town gangster Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), who wants a piece of the local action, and Treasury agent Barrett (Gene Barry), who wants to destroy the moonshine business, Luke fights for his fast-fading way of life.

A 2008 article in the Knox News says there were three people that Luke Doolin may have been modeled after. The most likely candidate seems to be a moonshine runner nicknamed Tweet-o-low Twill (awesome nickname!). An author, Alex Gabbard, interviewed Farragut, TN native John Fitzgerald, who as a teenager came upon a group of federal agents at a gas station who were talking about traps they had set to catch the notorious Kentucky moonshiner. Tweet-o-low Twill raced around their roadblock but met his end when he ran off the road and crashed at high speed, an ending that is reflected closely in Thunder Road.

We rounded up some fun facts about the movie to share. Enjoy!

Did you know that the screenplay of Thunder Road was adapted from a story by Robert Mitchum? According to James Mitchum, who was 16 when he played his 50-year-old father’s kid brother in the movie, “He wanted to be a writer. [In fact] he was a very good writer and wrote both music and (prose).”
Robert Mitchum also wrote and performed the movie’s title song, which you can listen to here (and/or view lyrics here.)
Supposedly the melody of this song (at a faster tempo) is taken from Mor Jeg Skal Tissem, a Norwegian Christmas song from the 1940s (which, oddly enough, appears to translate to: “Mom I have to pee.”) Since Mitchum was half Norwegian, perhaps he heard it himself as a child?
Alternatively, a Danish commenter on a thread about the movie says the melody stems from Musevisa (The Mouse Song) and remarked, “…and it’s very hard for me to take this seriously when I’m used to the song being sung by little mice celebrating Christmas!” [Personally, we’re not sure about either claim.]
Mitchum originally intended to cast Elvis Presley as the character of Robin Doolin (his “screen son”). When Colonel Tom Parker would not allow Elvis to film due to the subject matter, Mitchum’s actual son James lobbied for—and won—the role.

Unfortunately — and no doubt unfairly, James’ screen presence was unfavorably panned against his father’s natural screen charisma (not to mention experience). One especially harsh reviewers’ take: “The senior Mitchum owns the screen with an easy charm and magnetism while the young Mitchum is stiff with a vacant stare.” Having Robert Mitchum as your dad was apparently a pretty hard act to follow—figuratively and literally.

Explosion scene filmed on Merrimon Avenue near what is now City Foreign Auto. Photo courtesy of Park Circus

Car chase scenes from the film were used in an episode of The Twilight Zone (“The Prime Mover,” March 1961) and also in an episode of The Untouchables (“The Monkey Wrench,” July 1962).
In the funny way that art sometimes imitates life, a 1975 movie release called Moon Runners (starring James Mitchum and Arthur Hunnicut) also involved many of the same themes and was the direct inspiration for the TV show, The Dukes of Hazard.
Thunder Road was also the inspiration for Bruce Springsteen’s song of the same title.

Local Nancy Henderson recently reminisced in the Transylvania Times:

In the late 1950s, rumor was going around that Hollywood was coming here to the mountains. My mother had talked about a movie segment being filmed at Toxaway Falls called Tap Roots starring Rita Haywood. It was filmed in 1948. This was different. Robert Mitchum was coming. Somehow everyone knew. It was about moonshiners running moonshine. A car was going to go over Toxaway Falls. The road at the falls was closed on and off for several days at different times and people from all over were up there to see the action.

A swoon-worthy Robert Mitchum.

One of my mother’s friends just knew she was going to meet Robert Mitchum. She waited two days at the old quarry on 64 near the falls and she finally did get a glimpse of him. She talked about seeing him for years.

When the movie “Thunder Road” came to the theatre we all went to see it. There were two different scenes from our area I could definitely recognize. One was the car going over the falls (and by the way that car was left on the falls about halfway down for several years). Another scene was just up the road from where I live. It was an old school bus shack at the end of Reid Siding Road. Another scene I recognized was a garage on Patton Avenue in Asheville.

Even though the storyline was based on a true story that took place in Tennessee and Kentucky, everyone knew that the story could have come from our area. At that time, everyone knew who made moonshine and who ran the moonshine downstate to Hickory or Wilkesboro. There have been more recent movie scenes filmed in our area, but Robert Mitchum brought Hollywood to Quebec. In 1958 that was a big deal.

Also worth a look for more local memories and images from the movie:

“Thunder Road: Remembering the making of a cult classic“—Mountain XPress, May 2016

Thanks for sharing a few minutes of your day with us!

Please let us know if you have questions or comments about any of these stories, or about our foundation; and if you have stories and photos to share of local people, places, and events, please share them here, and you may see them in a future blog or newsletter, or on our social media channels.

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