RE: Driving Movies, etc.

[tgsgronback@mindspring.com (Steve Gronback)]

>On chase scenes, don't forget The French Connection, and the race with the
>subway train.


When I was in college in Nyack, NY, I house sat one summer in an old Tudor
villa overlooking the Tappan Zee bridge.  For those of you who have never
been in this area, it is about 20 miles north of NYC, and the Hudson river
is at its widest...about 1 mile.  Some of the best touring roads in America
start here and go north on either side of the river (if you try it, include
the Taconic Parkway, which I consider one of the greatest).

I got to know the neighbors in this four home enclave carved into the
Palisades, and eventually the young lady next door, who was about my age,
told me this story:

Gene Hackman lived in the cottage just below us for six months the previous
summer.  As the neighbors became friendly with him, he explained that he was
filming a movie in the city.   He drove home every night in a car they got
used to seeing.  One night he returned in a different car.

They asked, he told: "Oh, we wrecked that car today as part of a chase
scene".  He apparently went on to describe his day at work.

Wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation...

Steve Gronback