The Civil War campaign and major battle take their name from West Chickamauga Creek. It is often said that Chickamauga is a Cherokee word meaning "river of death". It has also been called "stagnant water"
In 1960 or 1961, someone came to town to film the Battle of Chickamauga in a local park. I have no idea (I really had no idea at the time either) who was doing this epic, who was starring in it or where it was going, but it was truly an opportunity, as I saw it, to be in a “real” movie. All sorts of very “hip” people seemed to be involved.
I know there were lots of people on the site, with the extras being anyone who owned jeans and chambray shirts who could sort of look like Union or Confederate troops from a distance. There was a crazy local guy involved who lived on North Avenue, I believe, who had inherited his parents house and had a open front car, the chauffer driven kind and had a large fur, Russian hat which he wore when he drove this behemoth around town.
There were one (or maybe two) real actors involved with this as he, or they, came down from New York so they must have been “real” actors. We had food service (maybe a grill and hot dogs) set up in Leakin Park, near the shoot. We had some hats (civil war stuff), some guns for killing people and lots of chocolate syrup, the magic needed, we learned, to created blood in black and white movies, as this was not to be a color epic.
The story involves the troops, low on blood, trying to get to the river as the loss of blood made you thirsty (we were told). So bleeding chocolate syrup, we crawled on our stomachs through the brush and down the hills searching for the river which was, of course, really polluted, so we didn’t really want to get there. This was an acting challenge. The real actor gets shot, turns around on the rocks and dies beautifully into the river. This must have been the climax shot first (the money shot).
Now we could have lunch! I was hot, cut up from the rocks and covered with syrup and the ants who wanted some.
About then we heard the sirens and saw the lights flashing. It seems we had a shooting permit for the wrong park, I think, but also passers by had phoned in that soldiers were killing each other in Leakin Park, not a Baltimore kind of event!
Most of us hurried to our cars or chauffer driven limos and got away leaving the director, the actor and the important people to face the music.
I never know what happened to any of those people. There was a movie of the Battle of Chickamauga released in 1962 but it was released in France and it was in the French language.
In 1960 or 1961, someone came to town to film the Battle of Chickamauga in a local park. I have no idea (I really had no idea at the time either) who was doing this epic, who was starring in it or where it was going, but it was truly an opportunity, as I saw it, to be in a “real” movie. All sorts of very “hip” people seemed to be involved.
I know there were lots of people on the site, with the extras being anyone who owned jeans and chambray shirts who could sort of look like Union or Confederate troops from a distance. There was a crazy local guy involved who lived on North Avenue, I believe, who had inherited his parents house and had a open front car, the chauffer driven kind and had a large fur, Russian hat which he wore when he drove this behemoth around town.
There were one (or maybe two) real actors involved with this as he, or they, came down from New York so they must have been “real” actors. We had food service (maybe a grill and hot dogs) set up in Leakin Park, near the shoot. We had some hats (civil war stuff), some guns for killing people and lots of chocolate syrup, the magic needed, we learned, to created blood in black and white movies, as this was not to be a color epic.
The story involves the troops, low on blood, trying to get to the river as the loss of blood made you thirsty (we were told). So bleeding chocolate syrup, we crawled on our stomachs through the brush and down the hills searching for the river which was, of course, really polluted, so we didn’t really want to get there. This was an acting challenge. The real actor gets shot, turns around on the rocks and dies beautifully into the river. This must have been the climax shot first (the money shot).
Now we could have lunch! I was hot, cut up from the rocks and covered with syrup and the ants who wanted some.
About then we heard the sirens and saw the lights flashing. It seems we had a shooting permit for the wrong park, I think, but also passers by had phoned in that soldiers were killing each other in Leakin Park, not a Baltimore kind of event!
Most of us hurried to our cars or chauffer driven limos and got away leaving the director, the actor and the important people to face the music.
I never know what happened to any of those people. There was a movie of the Battle of Chickamauga released in 1962 but it was released in France and it was in the French language.
While I’d like to think it was shot in Leakin Park, somehow I don’t believe it was.
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