Extras in 1964 movie honored

DONALDSONVILLE — Larry Graves was 13 when he spent the summer on a movie set at Houmas House Plantation with Bette Davis, Joseph Cotton, Joan Crawford and Olivia de Havilland.

He relived that summer at Saturday’s outdoor screening of that movie, “Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte,” during the annual Avenue Evening Stroll.

While hundreds of visitors strolled up and down Railroad Avenue shopping, taking horse-drawn carriage rides and listening to music, the corner of Charles Street and Railroad Avenue looked like the setting for a film premiere.

“We might as well be in Hollywood,” Kathe Hambrick Jackson, executive director of the River Road African American Museum, said.

Graves, who could be seen in one of the early move scenes trying to open a bottle with a cleaver, walked the red carpet in front of the River Road African American Museum with his sister, a fellow movie extra, Mary Aline Jackson.

A Donaldsonville schoolteacher on summer break when the movie was filmed, Mary Aline was in one of the final scenes of the movie.

“It was something fun to do,” she said, adding that she and a few other teachers who worked in the film “had lots to talk about” when they returned for the fall semester.

“It was pretty exciting,” she said.

Graves said he got to meet the actresses and actors in the movie — the only film he ever worked on.

It wasn’t the only movie set experience for Baton Rouge resident Jerry Leggio, who has one line in the movie and got to work directly with Davis.

Leggio, who worked with the Louisiana Division of Employment Security at that time, was in charge of casting movie extras.

He said his boss gave him the job because he was “a theater person.”

Leggio, who was 31 when the movie was filmed in the summer of 1964, described Davis as “delightful.”

The heat of that summer filming provided Leggio with a lasting memory of Davis’ thoughtful nature on the set, he said.

In their scene, Leggio said, he played the psychiatrist picking up Davis to take her to the sanitarium. The scene required the two to ride in a car filled with a row of lights mounted in the ceiling.

Leggio decided to turn off the hot lights when he heard the director say “cut,” he said. However, he was soon told not to turn off the lights.

“So, Bette Davis grabbed my arm and said ‘Don’t argue,I’ll take care of it,’ ” Leggio said.

On the next take of the scene, instead of driving back to the original spot, Davis insisted on walking.

“She told me that our walk had just cost the movie $10,000,” he said. After the next take, he was told it was OK to turn off the lights.

Leggio, Mary Aline Jackson, Graves and Eloise Graves Foreman, a cousin of the Graves who also worked on the film, were all honored for their work on the film

Also honored at the screening — which was part of the fall Louisiana Black History Film Series L’Applause — were the late James Owens and Joyce Soule, who also worked as extras on the movie set.

Kathe Hambrick Jackson and Leggio said the film industry was important to the Louisiana economy when the movie was shot, just as it is today.

On the Avenue

Donaldsonville’s economy got a boost during the Downtown Development District’s annual Avenue Evening Stroll, as shoppers filled several local stores.

Cabahanosse Antiques and Gifts co-owner Kay Dugas said the antique store had been busy with visitors not only from Ascension Parish, but also from neighboring parishes.

“It’s put everybody in the holiday season spirit,” Dugas said, adding that the city erected Christmas decorations including dozens of strings of while lights across the avenue.

“It’s a real boost to the economy,” Dugas said.

Inside Rossis’s Frame and Things, artist Alvin Batiste was surrounded by children wearing reindeer antlers as he painted a bear.

Carmel Prejean, of Belle Rose, and several of her coworkers at Marine Technical Services donned dresses from the late 1800s.

“We just thought it would be fun to dress up,” Prejean said.

Musicians performed in Louisiana Square and an antique car show was held.