One of the possibilities that really tantalized Wake Forest residents back in 1983 was the near-promise that scenes for a Warner Brothers’ film, Everybody’s All American, would be filmed in town. We were told in December it was “pretty much a lock.”
The location manager, Mark Indig, here to find locations, was almost ecstatic about the old Groves Stadium (not yet renamed for Tony Trentini) and the look of the downtown area for second location. “We like this town. We want to film here very much.”
The movie was to follow the career of a college football hero – Tommy Lee Jones – and his wife – Jessica Lange – with the college scenes set in the 1950s.
Warner Brothers even planned to restore the stadium, which had fallen on some pretty hard times. Those were the years when James Warren and other Wake Forest High alumni and former football players were energetically pressing the Wake County Board of Education to undertake renovations because the old wooden seats were rotting, the press box lacked windows and the locker rooms were a disgrace.
The school board, lacking funds as always, wanted to make the stadium multi-useful by tearing down the end sections and building a track around the football field, which also doubled as a soccer field.
The movie scheme, like the Hewlett-Packard plans, shimmered in the air and then disappeared from Wake Forest in early 1984 when it was postponed. The movie was finally made and released in 1988, but by that time Dennis Quaid was the football hero and the setting was Louisiana, though I cannot be sure anyone in the cast ever made it to that state. It appears the movie was pretty well panned. Ah, well.
The political excitement was the town board’s vote to annex the Forestville area and along U.S. 1-A (now South Main Street) to include two major industries, Athey and Weavexx. The North Carolina General Assembly voted against the town’s request so the town began steps on its own with a resolution of intent. That, however, fizzled in November when three commissioners – two who lost re-election and one retiring – decided to let the new board – Mayor Tommy Byrne, Commissioners Rod Byard, John Sanderford, Al Merritt, Kenille Prosser and Fred Chandley – hold the public hearings. Three industries, the two above and Neuse Plastics which made milk bottles, said they would fight annexation.
