| North and South Miniseries |
Kevin Young, yet another person from the show I have met off Ebay, (see below) was among the team that put together
the battle scenes for both productions and trained the cadets for the West Point scene (I am the guy yelling "A Good
Soldier can load and fire his musket three times a minute"). He told me a few things he remembered from the filming of the
series.
"Let's see; I remember reading the first novel will flying down to Brownsville, Texas to do a tour of Mexican War battlefields
(how appropriate). Later, when I heard that Warner's was going to do the mini series, I contacted an LA based buddy, Ray
Herbeck and suggested that if he knew anyone out there involved with the project, he might mention that if they wanted to
recreate the battle scenes, they might hire some re-enactors. All of that paid off-Ray got the job and round up a bunch of
us to come out and restage Churubusco for the film. Next thing that happened was that Ray needed someone to come
train students to be West Point cadets. So, Mike Boyd and I went back to Natchez to do that. We both ended up on camera
with one line parts. Then we got called in to help stage the Harper's Ferry Raid scene up in Arkansas.
While part one was showing, we got called back to Natchez to help stage the big Civil War scenes. It was pretty exiciting,
because this was the largest grouping of Civil War re-enactors in the West. Worked on all of this until we got rained out by
a Hurricane."
He later answered a few questions I had about the series.
the battle scenes for both productions and trained the cadets for the West Point scene (I am the guy yelling "A Good
Soldier can load and fire his musket three times a minute"). He told me a few things he remembered from the filming of the
series.
"Let's see; I remember reading the first novel will flying down to Brownsville, Texas to do a tour of Mexican War battlefields
(how appropriate). Later, when I heard that Warner's was going to do the mini series, I contacted an LA based buddy, Ray
Herbeck and suggested that if he knew anyone out there involved with the project, he might mention that if they wanted to
recreate the battle scenes, they might hire some re-enactors. All of that paid off-Ray got the job and round up a bunch of
us to come out and restage Churubusco for the film. Next thing that happened was that Ray needed someone to come
train students to be West Point cadets. So, Mike Boyd and I went back to Natchez to do that. We both ended up on camera
with one line parts. Then we got called in to help stage the Harper's Ferry Raid scene up in Arkansas.
While part one was showing, we got called back to Natchez to help stage the big Civil War scenes. It was pretty exiciting,
because this was the largest grouping of Civil War re-enactors in the West. Worked on all of this until we got rained out by
a Hurricane."
He later answered a few questions I had about the series.
What was it like to work with the actors?
For the most part, working with the actors was just fine. There are the usual ego problems and such, but on the whole, the
N&S “talent” on both parts was very easy to work with. One of the things we had to do was establish the difference between
the “re-enactors” and normal extras. It took some understanding of the difference. I think one of the major differences
between Book One and Book Two was the director. In Book One the director was kind of indifferent about having us all on
the set, while on Book Two, the director was very keen on having us and deferred a lot more to our professionalism. Many
of the crew from Book One were on Book Two, so by the time we got to film those scenes, they were used to us and knew
how better to employee our talents. Keep in mind, that this was one of the first movies to use re-enactors and living history
people to help stage the battle and historical scenes, so there was a lot of learning on all fronts.
Many of the actors were very pleased at what we did to make the film look good. I remember arriving at Natchez to film
Book Two. Book One was showing that night. We arrived at the hotel to find Ray Herbeck, and James Reed called out from
the bar, “Heh-get in here, you guys look great on TV!”
Not to say there weren’t some problems. The night we filmed the Harper’s Ferry scene for Book One (at a historic railroad
near Camden, Arkansas) was a long one because Johnny Cash did not want to wear a beard as John Brown. Ray Herbeck
was in there for an hour or more trying to convince him otherwise. Cash produced a picture of Brown without a beard
(which had been taken several years before Harpers Ferry during Brown’s Kansas days). Herbeck explained that the
image was earlier than the scene we were trying to shoot. Meanwhile all of the crew and us are outside waiting. I think it
finally took Waylon Jennings telling Cash to just wear the beard to get him out of the trailer.
One of the things that developed on Book Two was that if the re-enactors liked the actor, they showed military respect for
his rank. James Reed and Parker Stevenson were saluted all the time. One of the principals was not and actually
complained about it! When Hal Holbrook was one the set, everyone referred to him as “Mr. President.”
Were you "star struck" by any of them?
There is defiantly an early feeling of being star struck when you do your first film: but then you find out these are just folks
doing a job. So after a while, they become the folks you are working with. Everyone kind of mellowed down pretty easy. I
think James Reed is one of the nicest people in the world to work with, and so was Parker Stevenson. Parker showed up at
the re-enactor camp on his day off to shop the sutler’s stores (the folks who sell us the reproduction history stuff) to by his
own person items for his character. He had a real bonding with the men who played his Sharpshooters. Buddy Swayze was
a little more aloof on Book Two. I think if I was really taken back by anyone it had to be working with Jean Simmons. She
was a class act, and considering her body of work over the years, it was just an honor to be on the same set with her.
Who was your favorite?
One of my favorite people from the film was Andy Stahl. He was great and just a fun person to be around. I later worked
with Andy on “Houston-The Legend of Texas” and always enjoy seeing him on the screen.
Are you surprised by the "cult" following of the show?
Not surprised at all. I know a lot of people who are big fans of John Wayne’s The Alamo and Disney’s Davy Crockett, so
being followers of North and South seems kind of natural. I am glad that the show was so popular, even today.
What was the most difficult part of the shooting of your scenes?
Not getting people killed. Book One has its share of moments. I actually got nicked by Patrick Swayze’s sword (nothing but
a slight bruise). We really had to do some educating about the weapons (and of course, some of the actors thought they
didn’t need it). One of the most spectacular looking stunts in Book One’s Mexican War battle scene is when an artillery
limber and cannon are going at a full gallop and the limber drops a wheel. The cannon does some flips. It looks really
great. Problem was it was real. Those weren’t stunt wheels or plastic cannons. That was a full scale, M1841 US six pounder
flying through the air. The wheel came off on its own.
On Book Two, the battle scenes were so large that safety became a very big concern. I remember running into an ER
doctor from what was then Jeff Davis Hospital in Natchez who said our extras getting injured were paying for a new wing. It
was a lot of stuff that was caused by individual carelessness. One guy leaned on his loaded weapon and had it go off in his
face.
In the Petersburg attack scene, the Federals were supposed to have planks long enough to get across the ditch in front of
the Confederate earth works. We did the scene, charged across the field, got to the ditch, and guess what—the planks
were short. That is why you see the attack just stop as we try to figure what to do. Suddenly, folks start jumping into the
ditch and it was muddy. Some of the guys held up the planks so folks could walk over them. I remember going down the
line hitting guys on the shoulders to get them to move forward and down into the ditch. I had just made one pass when
someone said, “Did you just push Jim Reed into the ditch?”
It look great on film—probably the way a Civil War battle would have taken place.
Because these scenes were so long to set up, we had lots of down time. During this, the Confederates built a little mini
earth fort and called it “Fort Boredom” They left it for a while when we started to film, and then during another long break,
decided to “restore” it and even had a little grand opening of Fort Boredom Historic Site.
This was also the same time period of the Miller Light “Less Taste-Great Filling” commercials, so those lines were chanted
by the opposing forces a lot. There were also the occasional Zulu War chants between takes, When the prop guys where
throwing dummies into the ditch, the Confederates all start chanting “NO!” Just fun stuff to keep everyone awake.
The scene where the Union Army comes up in mass to the thin Confederate lines at Lynchburg Road had a couple of fun
moments. First, right as the entire Union Army marched into the field, a poor little Mississippi fox came bounding out the
woods. He stopped dead in his tracks, look around and just sat there. Jim Reed, Karl Luthin and the rest of the cavalry
boys chased him off the field. Then, during the shooting of the same scene, there is a shot of the Confederate commander
riding his horse down in front of his troops. You will see the tail of the horse up, and if you look hard, you might see so
shocked looks on the Confederates. The horse sounded one of the longest and loudest farts as he gallop down the line. If
only you could smell film!
There is a lot of what we did on the editing room floor, including a great recreation of the battle of Five Forks. We were
also going to film a big Gettysburg scene, but it was called off when a hurricane threaten Natchez and they moved the
production back to LA.
For the most part, working with the actors was just fine. There are the usual ego problems and such, but on the whole, the
N&S “talent” on both parts was very easy to work with. One of the things we had to do was establish the difference between
the “re-enactors” and normal extras. It took some understanding of the difference. I think one of the major differences
between Book One and Book Two was the director. In Book One the director was kind of indifferent about having us all on
the set, while on Book Two, the director was very keen on having us and deferred a lot more to our professionalism. Many
of the crew from Book One were on Book Two, so by the time we got to film those scenes, they were used to us and knew
how better to employee our talents. Keep in mind, that this was one of the first movies to use re-enactors and living history
people to help stage the battle and historical scenes, so there was a lot of learning on all fronts.
Many of the actors were very pleased at what we did to make the film look good. I remember arriving at Natchez to film
Book Two. Book One was showing that night. We arrived at the hotel to find Ray Herbeck, and James Reed called out from
the bar, “Heh-get in here, you guys look great on TV!”
Not to say there weren’t some problems. The night we filmed the Harper’s Ferry scene for Book One (at a historic railroad
near Camden, Arkansas) was a long one because Johnny Cash did not want to wear a beard as John Brown. Ray Herbeck
was in there for an hour or more trying to convince him otherwise. Cash produced a picture of Brown without a beard
(which had been taken several years before Harpers Ferry during Brown’s Kansas days). Herbeck explained that the
image was earlier than the scene we were trying to shoot. Meanwhile all of the crew and us are outside waiting. I think it
finally took Waylon Jennings telling Cash to just wear the beard to get him out of the trailer.
One of the things that developed on Book Two was that if the re-enactors liked the actor, they showed military respect for
his rank. James Reed and Parker Stevenson were saluted all the time. One of the principals was not and actually
complained about it! When Hal Holbrook was one the set, everyone referred to him as “Mr. President.”
Were you "star struck" by any of them?
There is defiantly an early feeling of being star struck when you do your first film: but then you find out these are just folks
doing a job. So after a while, they become the folks you are working with. Everyone kind of mellowed down pretty easy. I
think James Reed is one of the nicest people in the world to work with, and so was Parker Stevenson. Parker showed up at
the re-enactor camp on his day off to shop the sutler’s stores (the folks who sell us the reproduction history stuff) to by his
own person items for his character. He had a real bonding with the men who played his Sharpshooters. Buddy Swayze was
a little more aloof on Book Two. I think if I was really taken back by anyone it had to be working with Jean Simmons. She
was a class act, and considering her body of work over the years, it was just an honor to be on the same set with her.
Who was your favorite?
One of my favorite people from the film was Andy Stahl. He was great and just a fun person to be around. I later worked
with Andy on “Houston-The Legend of Texas” and always enjoy seeing him on the screen.
Are you surprised by the "cult" following of the show?
Not surprised at all. I know a lot of people who are big fans of John Wayne’s The Alamo and Disney’s Davy Crockett, so
being followers of North and South seems kind of natural. I am glad that the show was so popular, even today.
What was the most difficult part of the shooting of your scenes?
Not getting people killed. Book One has its share of moments. I actually got nicked by Patrick Swayze’s sword (nothing but
a slight bruise). We really had to do some educating about the weapons (and of course, some of the actors thought they
didn’t need it). One of the most spectacular looking stunts in Book One’s Mexican War battle scene is when an artillery
limber and cannon are going at a full gallop and the limber drops a wheel. The cannon does some flips. It looks really
great. Problem was it was real. Those weren’t stunt wheels or plastic cannons. That was a full scale, M1841 US six pounder
flying through the air. The wheel came off on its own.
On Book Two, the battle scenes were so large that safety became a very big concern. I remember running into an ER
doctor from what was then Jeff Davis Hospital in Natchez who said our extras getting injured were paying for a new wing. It
was a lot of stuff that was caused by individual carelessness. One guy leaned on his loaded weapon and had it go off in his
face.
In the Petersburg attack scene, the Federals were supposed to have planks long enough to get across the ditch in front of
the Confederate earth works. We did the scene, charged across the field, got to the ditch, and guess what—the planks
were short. That is why you see the attack just stop as we try to figure what to do. Suddenly, folks start jumping into the
ditch and it was muddy. Some of the guys held up the planks so folks could walk over them. I remember going down the
line hitting guys on the shoulders to get them to move forward and down into the ditch. I had just made one pass when
someone said, “Did you just push Jim Reed into the ditch?”
It look great on film—probably the way a Civil War battle would have taken place.
Because these scenes were so long to set up, we had lots of down time. During this, the Confederates built a little mini
earth fort and called it “Fort Boredom” They left it for a while when we started to film, and then during another long break,
decided to “restore” it and even had a little grand opening of Fort Boredom Historic Site.
This was also the same time period of the Miller Light “Less Taste-Great Filling” commercials, so those lines were chanted
by the opposing forces a lot. There were also the occasional Zulu War chants between takes, When the prop guys where
throwing dummies into the ditch, the Confederates all start chanting “NO!” Just fun stuff to keep everyone awake.
The scene where the Union Army comes up in mass to the thin Confederate lines at Lynchburg Road had a couple of fun
moments. First, right as the entire Union Army marched into the field, a poor little Mississippi fox came bounding out the
woods. He stopped dead in his tracks, look around and just sat there. Jim Reed, Karl Luthin and the rest of the cavalry
boys chased him off the field. Then, during the shooting of the same scene, there is a shot of the Confederate commander
riding his horse down in front of his troops. You will see the tail of the horse up, and if you look hard, you might see so
shocked looks on the Confederates. The horse sounded one of the longest and loudest farts as he gallop down the line. If
only you could smell film!
There is a lot of what we did on the editing room floor, including a great recreation of the battle of Five Forks. We were
also going to film a big Gettysburg scene, but it was called off when a hurricane threaten Natchez and they moved the
production back to LA.
This is an original Call Sheet for the series North and South Book Two. Date is
Friday, November 8, 1985, noted as the 59th day of shooting. This was near the
ending of location shooting in Natchez, all of the principals are listed and noted as
being sent back to Los Angeles, except James Read who is on hold in Natchez. This
was for second unit work out on the Denis Ranch. This is from someone who was in
charge of moving the re-enactors from place to place during shooting.
Friday, November 8, 1985, noted as the 59th day of shooting. This was near the
ending of location shooting in Natchez, all of the principals are listed and noted as
being sent back to Los Angeles, except James Read who is on hold in Natchez. This
was for second unit work out on the Denis Ranch. This is from someone who was in
charge of moving the re-enactors from place to place during shooting.
This is a diagram of how the Petersburg battle scene is to be recreated for the filming.
It is four pages. Shows were Orry's position is in the Confederate lines, the layout of
the recreated field fortifications, where the cannons are, where the camera tracks are,
and the timing sequence for the Union scene.
It is four pages. Shows were Orry's position is in the Confederate lines, the layout of
the recreated field fortifications, where the cannons are, where the camera tracks are,
and the timing sequence for the Union scene.
Check out Kevin's website:
http://www.andersonmacintyrehistoricalservices.com/filmsdocbooks.html
Also check out the photo section for information about one of the photo
shoots.
http://www.andersonmacintyrehistoricalservices.com/filmsdocbooks.html
Also check out the photo section for information about one of the photo
shoots.
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