Fackeln im Sturm - Making of

The american author John Jakes was tasked by his editor to write a novel covering the development of a family during the times of the Civil War. After studying some first historical documents of that time period showing how deep the division had run through the society and even through families, he came to the conclusion to devide the story on two families, one from the North and one from the South, being bonded together and also ripped apart by the events. Soon it became clear that for this voluminous material, he needed mor than one but three books. The novels would soon get to be bestsellers, supported by his livid style of writing and numerous relatings to historical facts having been carefully researched. In his novels he gave some historical figures parts of the plot as well, depicting them and their environment in very truthful manner.

Soon after the release of the first book titled "North and South", U.S. television station ABC concluded to produce a tv series based on it. In this case also it became clear quickly that the theme absolutely cannot be covered with the usual 90 minute time span. It was extended then to a big project of three seasons by 6 episodes by 90 minutes. (The third season, produced many years later, was cut to 3 episodes due to cost reduction.)

The first season by 6 episodes was aired the first time as follows:

Episode aired running length

1 03.11.1985 89.37 min

2 05.11.1985 89.11 min

3 06.11.1985 89.28 min

4 07.11.1985 89.19 min

5 09.11.1985 89.34 min

6 10.11.1985 90.17 min

Jakes finished book 2 as the filming on season 1 was still in progress. This way, the production of season 2 followed up directly.

Episode aired running length

7 04.05.1986 90.14 min

8 05.05.1986 90.37 min

9 06.05.1986 90.31 min

10 07.05.1986 90.27 min

11 08.05.1986 90.34 min

12 11.05.1986 90.33 min

To continue this very ambitious project on the third book, the funding wasn't to be found then - and the now missing decisiveness by the management of ABC in the process. It was eight years later when this was done, now using a very much cut-down financial effort and only half the running time. This - together with the break in the storyline by the script to the previous seasons - resulted in a enormous loss of viewership.

Episode aired running length

13 27.02.1994 87.46 min

14 28.02.1994 86.47 min

15 02.03.1994 87.11 min

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The History of North and South

(DVD Special 2003)

Title: The History of North and South

Start 0.00, length 0.11

Intro

Start 0.11, length 1.15

PATRICK SWAYZE: North and South cam along and I would... i would die to get it. You know, it was just one of those roles of a lifetime.

JAMES READ: This is Gone With The Wind for the last half of the 20th century. This is Vom With The Wind for television.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: I didn't have to create Madeline. John Jakes created Madeline.

JOHN JAKES: The popularity of the American Civil War and that goes with it really lies in the emotion of people who are close to one another being torn apart by what they believe, or what they're supposed to believe.

DAVID WOLPER: Roots was the story of the South from the Black point of view. North and South is the story of the South from the White point of vieww.

BILL CONTI: The very first thing that you hear when the project goes on is the main title. And that's THE music. And the music is gonna carry that magig of, what is this thing all about.

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An Epic Story

Start 1.26, Länge 5.00

JOHN JAKES: Well, North and South, the trilogy began with a three-book contract that I had. Originally it was about to be three books about a military family through the years, one family. I then starten to research it. And of course, the first place I went to was West Point. Read the history of West Point. And in one book, I came across this one page that named all of the generals who fought each other in the Civil War on opposite sides. They had all known each other at West Point. They had gone to school together. They had gone to Mexico together, fought there. And I called up my editor, and I said, "Julian, this has gotta be it. Now, we're gonna do two families at West Point." And it divides very nicely into North and South dealing with the antebellum years, Love and War dealing with the war itself, Heaven and Hell dealing with reconstruction. And that was it. But it was an evolution.

DAVID WOLPER: Well, the North and South came about, because I actually got a call from ABC. THey just bought a book called "North and South". I had just done Roots, I had just done The Thornbirds for them. They said, "We couldn't think of anybody better we'd like to turn over the whole project but to you." So, I read the book, the first book, right away. And I said, it's a great, juicy story. John Jakes is a very juicy writer.

JAMES READ: It was material that would be adapted so well for the form, the long form, in which feature films can't do because they're compressed ito an hour and a half or two hours. And this story needed a lot of time to be told, to be told effectively and to be told in the right way.

JOHN JAKES: I knew I had to do a formidable amount of research for the trilogy. First of all, because the Civil War is such an enormously popular subject, not only in the United States, but around the world. Today, the Civil War is called sometimes the Brothers' War, the Cousins' War. And phrases like that really exemplify the split, the painful split that took part in our country.

Insert: Orry to George at Lehigh Station depot in 1861: "You know, years ago, John Calhoun said that West Point men would lead great armies. He never thought they'd be leading them against each other."

JOHN JAKES: And I hadn't really realized, it was that deep or that harrowing. But that was the whole point that emerged in writing North and South was, these two guys basically, who had a great affection for one another as West Point classmates. At the end, when war broke out, they were pulled apart. They each had to go their own way. And it was more than just a casual desicion. It was very, very emotional.

DAVID WOLPER: I tell you, we didn't have any problems with the theme, with any controversy with the North and South for one particular reason. You heard the South's point of view, and you heard the North's point of view. So it wasn't… You heard slavery, but then you heard the people in the North saying how bad it was.

PATRICK SWAYZE: I was really intrigued with this time period because, at the same time it was a coming-of-age story in many ways for Orry and George, it was a coming-of-age period in my life as Patrick, you know, havint to really analyze and look at who I am and what I was about, and who I thought I was as opposed to who I really was.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: Television definitely has its place in North and South, definitely has its place telling the story of certain aspects of slavery of slavery seen from a white man's perspective. I think, it did marvelous things with Virgilia's character, you know, the abolitionists and all of that.

JAMES READ: Reading John Jakes' books gave me great insight, but it also prodded me to do a lot more research. And also delve into my own family tree. Wome who have died and some who spent time in Confederate prison camps, and so forth. So, that really brought it very close to me.

JOHN JAKES: The only thing I determined before I started writing North and South was, that I would not be an apologist for slavery under any circumstances. I've actually been cornered at parties by what I call professional Southerners who tried to tell me that slavery wasn't so bad. It was okay. They were wage slaves in the North. They were slaves in the factories. And to that, I always say, "Yes, but in the North, they could walk away. They could - just - walk - away.

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The Main Family

Start 6.26, length 5.49

PATRICK SWAYZE: I had no idea what I was getting into, because I am a Southern man. I do come from a belief system that is based in integrity and morality and a certain code. This time period, with the Civil War brewing, in many ways, it was the first time, men were challenged to start questining this code.

JOHN JAKES: I was living in South Carolina, recently moved in at the time I started the book. I located their plantation up near Charleston. I debated as to whether to put the Main family in the cotton business or the rice business. Ultimately, I decided on the rive business because that was older than the cotton business in South Carolina. I would say, the Main family were middle-of-the-road Southerners, in the sense that they were slave owners, but tried not to mistreat their slaves. But when push came to shove, they were willing to apply horrible punishments to the slaves.

Insert: Orry intercepts with Salem Jones whipping Priam. Jones: "Oh, Mister Main, Sir." Orry: "What's Priam done? Why you beating him?" Jones: "There's no crime exactly. It's his attidude, Sir. Priam don't show the proper respect." Orry: "A good overseer knows how to get a man's respect without beating him. And we don't whip slaves at Mont Royal."

PATRICK SWAYZE: It really taught me what it is to be a true Southern man, you know.It was like, at one point, my agent had a meeting with me and said, "You've got to quit calling everybody 'Sir'." I went, "Why?". He says, "Because it shows a lack of respect for yourself." I went, "What the hell is wrong with you? I mean, that's insanity." It had nothing to do with my self-esteem. It had to do with, you know, the certain way you're brought up. You hold the door for women. You pull their chair out. You, you… it's your job. It's not a macho thing. But also, when you say "Sir" in a different context, it can also be very dangerous, you know. You know, "Sir, you mess with me one more time, and I break every bone in your body."

Insert: Saber drill at West Point. Bent: "Let's have you, Mister Main (smiles)." Orry: "(seriously) At your service, Sir."

DAVID WOLPER: We had two personalities, we picked James Read, and we had auditions and readings and verything, and James Read looked the right to us. You know, we wanted attractive-looking guy actors, obviously. Patrick Swayze was not a big star at the time. He looked perfect for us, too. Both of them auditioned and read and screen-tested. And they got the part because they came out the best in the screen test and the audition.

JOHN JAKES: David Wolper and I didn't have many arguments. But we had one about Orry losing his arm. You know, in the book, he loses an arm fighting in Mexico. Consequently, his other arm is extremely powerful, and it can even be used as a weapon. Well, David didn't wanna do that. And I can remember, we argued about it on the phone. And he finally persuaded me by saying, "Look," he said, "if I have to have 12 hours - or 10 hours, or eight hours, or whatever - with Patrick Swayze with his arm tied behind his back, they won't get the story. They'll be saying, 'Where's his arm hiding? Where's his arm hiding?'" So, I said, "Allright, you've won. You've won."

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: Patrick has such charisma that every girl who met, and I'm sure meets him today, you meet him and you go: huh. And he lights something up inside you. So, it wasn't difficult to act that. Because even though I didn't, you know, want to sort of leap off into the sunset with him, he's a charismatic person, and he inspires those looks and that flirtatiousness.

Insert: Orry meets Madeline at the overturned carriage. Madeline: I don't even know your name." Orry: Oh, it's Orry, Orry Main. I'm… I'm from Mont Royal, just up the river." Madeline: "My name is Madeline Fabray." Orry: "I'm delighted to meet you."

PATRICK SWAYZE: I've always said, "You give me horses, capes and cleavage and I'm a happy man," you know (chuckles) Well, I still have them. I still have the wardrobe. But I've never let go of my general's uniform, and the cape when Madeline and I make love for the first time in that burned-out church, and sort of consummate this doomed, or lookes like it's doomed, relationship.

Insert: After Tillet's burial. Clarissa: "He loved you very much" Orry: "I know." Clarissa: "I'm gonna miss him so."

PATRICK SWAYZE: It was a really emotional time for me, because my dad died, my real dad died soon before. So, when you asked me earlier about, you know, "How does it feel with your father dying, as Orry, and having to take over the family and that responsibility and carry on the legacy?" I was in the throes, personally, in the throes of, "What do I do without my dad?"

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The Hazard Family

Start 12.15, length 3.49

JOHN JAKES: The North was so overwhelmingly powerful as an industrial concern, as an industrial society, that it seemed to me that having Hazards in the iron business, making cannon, making whatever they made during the war, was probably a good way to exemplify the strength of the North.

JAMES READ: I think, that my character, George Hazard, was the conscience of the story, the moral conscience, the moral authority. He had a true understanding of the division that was apparently ripping the country apart. It wasn't black and white. It wasn't the South is bad, the North is good. It's much more complicated than that.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: There was not a guy on North and South that I didn't, at one point or another, think: "You're so darling, you're just so darling. Le me just hug you and kiss you." And James Read is certainly one of them. And of course, I go get to hug him and kisshim in North and South III. A marvelous actor. He really is.

JAMES READ: I tried to bring the sense of me that meets up with the character. And George's journey is one that goes from optimistic youth, looking to the promise of the future, to one that grows into disillusionment, and pain, and the suffering that goes with fighting for a cause that you believe in but carries with it a tremendous price.

PATRICK SWAYZE: I fell in love with him as a person. And his ease, his James Bont kind of… you know, handsone and cool. And in many ways, I wanted to be him, because he was just so cool, and just had so much class and… you know, and I'm like the reactionary, you know, "If it moves, eat it."

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: He was great in this series. He really was. He had a tough uphill battle with that part, you know. North, upper class, upper... He didn't have any of the raw emotion that Orry Main had. He had an uphill battle, and he pulled it off really well.

JOHN JAKES: Well, George was sort of the steady one in the family. Physically, George and Orry in the pictures are reversed. Orry was tall and thin, skinny, kind of a Lincoln-esque figure. George was short, stocky. That changed when the actors were cast.

Insert: Virgilia: "My brother obviously forgot to introduce me, Mr. Main." George: "Of course not. (embraces her)" Virgilia to Orry: "I'm Virgilia Hazard."

JOHN JAKES: Virgilia, who's always been one of my favorite characters, she was a fiery abolitionist.

Insert: Virgilia at her speech: "So, where, Ladies and Gentlemen, do these new slaves come from? Why, they come from slavery itself. For the true crop of a Southern plantation is a human crop."

DAVID WOLPER: Don't have to tell you about Kirstie Alley, the audience know how feisty she is.

PATRICK SWAYZE: Kirstie is intense. I mean, she's got that fire in here eyes. She gets on something, she's like a pitbull. As actors, we played in underlying current of attraction, you know, to where it was that kind of... you know, dangerous male-female relationship.

Insert: Virgilia to Orry: "Well, since you're so enamored with women and their ideas, perhaps you would enjoy listening to one who actually has some."

JAMES READ: Very easy to believe. Very easy to see the passion of that character come alive in her.

Insert George to Virgilia: "Taking you into South Carolina is like taking a torch into a powder magazine." Virgilia: "I'll be good as gold, I promose."

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The Ladies

Start 16.04, length 3.06

Insert: Bent to Madame Conti: "To you, Madam. Your love of beauty is exceeded only by a love of money." Conti: "Oh, how true."

DAVID WOLPER: Now, somebody like Elizabeth Taylor, she agreed to do magazine, newspaper, radio and television interview. So, she came down to Charleston, because she hadn't done an interview for about five years. So, what she brought us for that one day was a network television show on three networks, major stories by AP and UP, major stories in People, TIME magazine. And so, it's worth paying her.

Insert: Ashton to Madeline: "I have some rather distressing news, Madeline… I know that you probably told Orry, and no doubt he said that our family--" Madeline: "What stays between Orry and me is non of your business, Ashton."

DAVID WOLPER: Well, they were all feisty, I gotta tell you. They became Kirstie Alley, Terri Garber, Wendy Kilbourne. Those three became very close on the set.

Insert Ashton in the nude: "I declare, I wish I could go out exactly like this."

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: The clothes... the clothes were a nightmare, for me, I know. In the days when people actually wore those clothes, those women have them on for maybe two hours a day. We had them on for 12, 14, sometimes longer, a day. Most of the women stopped getting our periods. Completely stopped. Because the pulling-in of all of your organs just seizes you up. And at lunch time, we would get to take our corsets off, and literally... they would hang them up outside the trailer, and they would just drip with the sweat. And then you put them back on.

DAVID WOLPER: Lesley-Anne Down is a beautiful, beautiful woman. I had done two films with her, so I know how beautiful she is. I've always found that no matter what angle you film Lesley-Anne Down from, she's beautiful.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: There wasn't even a question as to what part I wanted to play. I mean, on page two, it was obvious to me that Madeline was your absolute archetypal heroine. She was the woman that would be remembered. Not that her part was more important than anybody else's, but she's definitive. She was just beautifully written and she was one of those girls that the guys just want to get on a big old horse and go rescue. They wanna be Orry Main.

PATRICK SWAYZE: Lesley and I both were of the belief that it's not about jumping somebody's bones or sucking face that's sexy. It's about the need and the passion, the desire and the connection between two homan beings in there eyes.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: Well, you know what, passionate love scenes I have some experience with. So, whenever you have to act those, it just tickles the old emotions again. So you're kind of like, "Oh yeah, I remember that. (laughes)"

JAMES READ: Lesley-Anne Down is the essence of a true Southern belle.

PATRICK SWAYZE: She was just eye-candy. She was just, you know, luscious.

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An Epic Production

Start 19.10, length 4.07

PATRICK SWAYZE: The scope pf the production was staggering. I mean, the size and re-enacting Civil War battles, and going back to this time period, but we were shooting in places it all happened. Boone Hall, this gorgeous plantation. And standing in btween those columns and looking out, how could you not be this guy? You know. And going down the streets of Charleston in carriages, all you had to do is leave yourself open. And the production value alone would take you away.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: The first time that we were at Boone Hall, you turn a corner, and you see the canopy of trees, like a cathedral, stretched out in front of you. And there is the house that is so famous. It's goose-bumpy.

DAVID WOLPER: It took us a year and a half. We filmed it in Charleston, South Carolina, and some were in Mississippi, and some here out in the Simi Valley, Newhall, California. We had a lot of problems. I think, one of the funniest ones that happened to us is, we shot in Charleston, because Charleston is a city that looks the same. Whole areas of Charleston are no different than they were back in the 1800s. So, one particular street... whenever we film we had to put dirt over the pavement because there wasn't any pavement in that period. So, one street, we put dirt up and down the pavement. And a woman comes out screaming and yelling: "You're gonna ruin my house. You're putting dirt in my house. This is an 1860 house. All this filth and dirt is gonna ruin my house." I looked at her and I said, "Lady, there was dirt in front of your house for a hundred years before I came. And it's lasted today, It's gonna last one more day of dirt." And then she looked at me and said, "Well, you're right, Mister Wolper, you're right."

JAMES READ: We're shooting outside of Natchez, Mississippi. And I don't know if you've ever been in Natchez in July, but it's a little hot. (smiles).

PATRICK SWAYZE: We're shooting in sweltering Southern heat with 150 percent humidity.

JAMES READ: And, of course, we're shooting a winter scene. It's snowing.

PATRICK SWAYZE: And while on camera, I would be able to turn my sweat of. But then here and there, I would just turn or lean over or whatever in a fight scene, so whatever, and just pass out and just hit the ground. It's like, "Swayze, Swayze's on the ground again. Slap him, get him up."

JAMES READ: And it was so hit that the soap flakes they used to imitate snow were melting and dripping on the costumes. Didn't lend the necessary air of authenticity they were looking for.

Insert Battle scene (no dialog)

DAVID WOLPER: The major thing, of course, with the Civil War was a battle scene. Fortunately, in a Civil War, there were groups in the South who meet every week and restage battles, live like the people did in those days. They lived in the tents, they spent overnight together, they restage the battles together. Without them, it'd be nearly impossible to... it will take you months to get the costumes, figure out how to stage the battles. You know, so they really are a terrific help with people who do Civil War films. These groups are Civil War experts. They're just sensational.

JAMES READ: If that kind of dedication to authenticity didn't inspire you, and lead you to believe that there are people really dedicated to telling the story in a true and accurate way, then nothing else would.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: They need no direction. They... "Action!" and they just... It's hard to stop them. "Stop killing each other, the camera's not rolling anymore!"

JOHN JAKES: I know that a book is not going to jump fully-blown onto the screen. And I was very happy, generally, with the adaptations that came out of these novels.

DAVID WOLPER: You got a lot of writers who say: "Well, I can't put this in. You changed my book, you did this." John James was nothing like that. He loved what we had done in the script, he loved everything. He loved what we left out and what we edited in. We told him the reasons why we did it. He totally approved everything. And he was one of those writers who understands the business.

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The Music

Start 23.17, length 3.04

BILL CONTI: I had to sit with David Wolper, who is an elegant gentleman with a reputation as a producer unparalleled, unrivalled by anyone else. He's a special man. And I believe he said to me after knowing what the project was about, that he wanted something like Gone With The Wind. And I probably said, "Okay." (Insert: Bill Conti plays the main theme on the piano) And I do remember playing it on the piano for both David and the director. And I obviously accomplished what I'd set out to do, at least in the minds of David and our director. (Insert: episode opening with main title playing) The music has the emotion stuff. Is it a big project? Is it a big picture? Is it a big mini-series? I think, my opening does that. I think, it delivers the goods.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: You know, it either has a spark and a magic, or it doesn't. And North and South had a spark and a magic.

DAVID WOLPER: Perfect quality and perfect sound. I mean, there's nothing... I couldn't ask for more as a producer.

BILL CONTI: I casually turned to David and I said, "By the way, when do we go on the air?" He says, "In three weeks." Shortened my life by six months, I'm sure, but I began immediately. Every morning from 6 o'clock to 6 o'clockl at night, I wrote music. Because I had a week's worth of music to start recording. And I was, for two weeks biw always recording at night, writing during the day.

Insert: Charles and Whitney Smith taking up position for the duel, master ceremony, "One, two, three, four"

BILL CONTI: Wouldn't it be nice if we had, in a Wagnerian sense, a "leitmotiv"? A little theme that you attached to various players, actors, characters, as they came in, or situations.

Insert: Constance to George: "You know, I fell in love with you during our very first dance."

BILL CONTI: Oh, I'm in love," and you hear the love theme.

Insert: Virgilia kissing Grady (no dialogue)

BILL CONTI: "Oh, here comes... him," and his theme plays. So I did that. I made up a little pallet of themes for everyone and some situations, and I think, everytime we fought, I did something.

Insert: Battle scene (no dialogue)

BILL CONTI: Playing the theme for David at the piano the first time, I'm glad that he thought it was really good, bvecause I'd have to go back and do another one if he didn't.

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Memories

Start 26.21, length 3.26

DAVID WOLPER: Sometimes when I watch something 10 years later and see the film, I still say to myself, "I don't like that scene. It could have been something. It could have been better." When Orry Main came from the South to West Point, in actuality, a number of people from the South brought their slaves with them to West Point. And we cut it out then because you'd have this long explanation of what happened there, and I didn't wanna get into a controversy and everything. But later on, I said to myself, "That would have been a terrific scene." It would have said something to the other characters, people from the North, by saying, by getting a closer picture of what slavery was all about. And it would have, I think, helped the overall story. That we didn't put in, and I'm sorry about that.

PATRICK SWAYZE: It was a very, very explosive... you know, period of time. It think, it was like a gigantic soap opera. You know, you turn on one episode, you just get sucked in.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: I got the opportunity to work with... unbelievable people. I mean... Jimmy - Stewart...

Insert Miles Colbert to Madeline: "There now. Now, that's the smile I remember." Miles Colbert to Orry and George: "I could tell how much your wife cared for you, and that troubled me all the time I was holding my silence."

PATRICK SWAYZE: I got byself all prepped and primed to walk on the set with Jimmy Stewart, and when I walked on the set, my knees turned to butter and I couldn't remember one word of what I was supposed to say. I felt like a little kid, just standing there, just in awe.

JAMES READ: I was in New Orleans a couple of months ago - and this is almost 20 years after the show first aired - and I was walking down Bourbon Street, and a guy came up to me, and stopped and looked at me, and said, "General Hazard." And he saluted me. I was... just taken aback.

BILL CONTI: It's one of the... one of the things that I'm most prud of, I'll tell you, the North and South is one of my favotites. There's hours of music.

JOHN JAKES: You mean, which book do I like personally? Ahm, my favorite is the middle one, Love and War, because it covers the entire Civil War, start to finish. And I think, it's a pretty good highlight version of the war, from the Southern side as well as the Northern side.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: There's no question, number one was my favorite book, of course it was.

PATRICK SWAYZE: It broke my heart that I didn't get to... I didn't get to do this role and my dad see it.

JAMES READ: Anyplace where you find the essence of civil war, where you have one people divided on an issue, makes it a story that people can relate to, no matter where they're from or what language they speak.

LESLEY-ANNE DOWN: It was a true, extra-rich chocolate piece of life, you know. It truly was..

DAVID WOLPER: What I enjoy about the results is, that we're still talking about it. And we can still show the film 20 years later. And we'll still be able to show it 50 years later. Because it's a story about history. It will always be relevant. It will always be important.

End 29.47

Patrick Wayne Swayze, * 18.08.1952 in Houston, TX, + 14.09.2009 (57) in Los Angeles, CA

James Christopher Read, * 31.07.1953) in Buffalo, NY

Lesley-Anne Down, * 17.03.1954 in Wandsworth, Lodon, GB

David Lloyd Wolper, * 11.01.1928 in New York City, NY, + 10.08.2010 (82) in Beverly Hills, CA

Bill Conti, * 13.04.1942 in Providence, RI

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Original ABC Press Release of 1985

(translated to German and re-translated to English by uh since not to be found online any more)

North and South and North and South Book II (based on John Jakes' popular novels North and South and Love and War) was produced in 1985-86 by David L. Wolper Productions and Warner Brother Television as a 12 hour ABC tv novela for television.

The 24 hour mini series, a comprehensive saga about two American families - one from the North, one from the South - going together through the turbulent decades leading up to the Civil War following the four terrible years of national division, is the first time that an epic novel and its sequel - both best sellers - were filmed in the same season.

North and South, depicting the rising conflicts and lingering cracks in personal relationships, dividing the nation in the years leading up to the "war between the states", is aired in six episodes: Sunday, Nov 3rd; Tuesday, Nov 5th; Wednesday, Nov 6th; Thursday, Nov 7th; Saturday, Nov 9th; and Sunday, Nov 10th (9 to 11 p.a. EST respectively).

North and South Book II will be aired in the spring of 1986 and follows the characters through the historic events and individual pathes and triumphs of the Civil War years.

Actors in North and South are (in alphabetical order) Kirstie Alley as Virgilia Hazard, Georg Stanford Brown as Grady, David Carradine as Justin LaMotte, Phillip Casnoff as Elkanah Bent, Lesley-Anne Down as Madeline Fabray, Genie Francis as Brett Main, Terri Garber as Ashton Main, Wendy Kilbourne as Constance Flynn, Jim Metzler as James Huntoon, James Read as George Hazard, Lewis Smith as Charles Main, John Stockwell as Billy Hazard and Patrick Swayze as Orry Main.

Special Guests are (in alphabetical order) Johnny Cash as John Brown, Olivia Cole as Maum Sally, Morgan Fairchild as Burdetta Halloran, Robert Guillaume as Frederick Douglass, Hal Holbrook as Abraham Lincoln, Gene Kelly as Sen. Charles Edwards, Robert Mitchum as Col. Patrick Flynn, M.D., Jean Simmons as Clarissa Main, David Ogden Stiers as Congressman Sam Greene, Inga Swenson as Maude Hazard and Elizabeth Taylor as Madam Conti.

North and South was filmed in Charleston, SC; St. Francisville, LA; Natchez, MS; Reader, AK; and Southern California. Among the filming locations are lots of historical buildings and monuments, having been preserved or reconstructed in authentical Southern furnishings.

North and South and North and South Book II tells the story of two families - the Main's, owner of a plantation in South Carolina, and the Hazard's, industrialists from Pennsylvania. They are connected by honor and friendship, dispite being greatly separated by distance and ideology. The bonds between and also inside these families were tested and altered throughout more than 2 decades, when their way of lifes were led by prominent figures and the historic events to the dissolution of the Union and the horrors of the Civil War.

In 1842, the Main's and the Hazard's each send one son - Orry and George - to West Point. There they form the friendship that will bring both families - the old and the young folks - together forever, in love, society and in passionate philosophical differences, unstoppably leading the nation to an armed conflict. This way, the paths of the family are passing historical milestones - the Mexican American War, the uprising of abolitionism, the election of Abraham Lincoln, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, the secession of South Carolina, the firing on Fort Sumter - that profoundly change their ways of living and their hopes for the future.

North and South Book II guides the Main's and the Hazard's into the years of the war. Former proud officers of the same army, George and Orry now serve on opposite sides, pass their military knowledge on to other former clasmates - Grant, McClellan, Lee, Pickett, Jackson - and give advice to highest levels, the presidents Lincoln and Davis. The capture by the enemy throws George into the unspeakable inhumanity of Libby Prison in the South and takes Orry's connection to him to a difficult test. George's younger brother Billy Hazard and Orry's younger cousin Charles Main, having followed their tracks in West Point, are now facing each other in battle - friend against friend, the ultimate tradegy of the war.

The four long years from Sumter to Appomattox will change every member of the both families. Orry's beloved Madeline suffers the ultimate confrontation with her brutal husband Justin LaMotte. Then, she leaves him in regard of the family's honor to use another name and support those self-sacrificingly who are stranded by the events of the war. Hot-headed Charles Main finds love in an equal independend-minded widow. George's wife Constance has to carry many burdens, with her husband in prison, the outrageous culmination of abolitionistic fanatismus of her sister-in-law, and the pressure from fraudulent war profits that his brother-in-law and his wife pull out of the family business.

Orry's amoral and cunning sister Ashton also hopes to take advantages from the rise of the South. Her marriage with easy manipulatable James Huntoon from South Carolina is no reason to restrain from an affair with Orry's and George's long time personal enemy Elkanah Bent, even not to take part in Bent's scheme to kill Jefferson Davis.

No connection between the Main's and the Hazard's is stronger than the marriage of Billy Hazard and Orry's younger sister Brett. She is living like a stranger in the North during the outbreak of the war and then embarks on a dangerous trip behind the lines to stand by her mother in the beleaguered and war-threatened plantage Mont Royal.

Executive Producers of North and South are David L. Wolper and Chuck McLain. It is produced by Paul Freeman and directed by Richard T. Heffron.

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Production Notes

(translated to German and re-translated to English by uh since not to be found online any more)

The Strive For Historical Accuracy

"It is my philosophy in film making to entertain and inform at the same time. I believe, the mixture of both is what people really want and prefer, and I try to achieve this in every single project," says Wavid L. Wolper, the producer of North and South.

Wolper's fascination with history has significant impact on his whole career and his mor than 600 movies. He developed the docu-drama fornat for television with They've Killed President Lincoln and his Appointment with Destiny specials. Among other projects were for example The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Lincoln, The Making of the President and Roots. All of these movies represent history from the perspective of the respective author. Wolper's youngest undertaking follows this tradition - twi 12 hour telenivelas on John Jakes' bestsellers North and South as well as Love and War, produced in conjunction with Warner Brothers for the broadcaster ABC.

John Jakes' way is the historical fiction. Three of his best-selling novels on the American revolution, The Kent Family Chronicles, already were produced for television. The time span covered by North and South - the twenty years leading up to the Civil War - were new to him. It hadn't been done for television before.

"The American Civil War bears a worldwide fascination that other periods of history don't have," he says. "I think, this time has a very deep impact to this days. The importance is this string and dramatic because in this period leading to the war, the nation was torn apart."

"This is new for drama," Wolper explains, who found a all elements of a good story in North and South: lively characters from great and mighty families of a time of grace, beauty and exuberance, passionate or unfulfilled love, difficult moral decisions, nastiness behind charming behavior, fighting on bloody battlefields and with hurtful words.

By selling 2.8 million books of North and South, the public seems to see it this way also.

Jakes places his characters in front of the historical bachground, and his detailful researched novel was the first source as Wolper, executive producer Chuck McLain and producer Paul Freeman began looking for descriptions of the events, appearances, locations and figures they wanted to depict. But a realization for television brought up a lot of new problems that the novel - or its author - wasn't always able to solve. How can it be made sure that all visual elements - scenes, furtinures, costumes, props - th be historically correct to the smallest detail? Can the actions, as required by the script, be produced in a logistical and economical sensible manner?

Chuck McLain had tested these problems for more than two years before the actual filming took place, at a time when he was still vice president for tv movies and mini serieses at Warner Brothers. The fragile balance between historical correctness and the actual drama required a lot of caution from the first day of script writing over the span of five months of filming and the post-production phase.

He was lucky to have a remarkable co-worker: Ray Herbeck Jr, whose knowledge on the Civil War era, combined with profound knowledge on filming production, made him the ideal technical advisor for North and South.

Herbeck got fascinated on the Civil War when he visited the battlefield of Pea Ridge at the age of 10 with his grandfather. After school time, Ray visited a lot of great Civil War battlefields and urgendly collected informations from the park rangers. He graduated in journalism and history at the University of Utah, wrote for the Billboard and three years later worked as author of On Location. In the meantime he built up a library of more than 300 books on the Civil War, spent many weeks reenacting the Mexican War and the Civil War with a group of history friends in California, the Terry's Texas Rangers, and produced recordings with music from the war period.

Producer Paul Freeman met Ray when working on the On Location issue about The Chisholm's and rememberd his Civil War affection when he later looked for an advisor for North and South. Herbeck came to the production one year before the filming started and since then supplied his notes, historical documents, corrections and production advisories, finally filling a folder as thick as an arm.

The most important was, to transport the sense of reality into the depiction. Therefore, Herbeck for example provided to McLain a year by year summary of social talking points between 1842 aud 1861. The script writers had to make these facts understandable to the viewers.

"Even if a fact is historically correct," McLain warns, "you have to write it in the way people talk and dramatize it. It is not enough to mention the Fugutive Slave Law. You have to describe it in a way to make it interesting and understandable."

Much care was taken on the reasons of the war inside the dramaturgical structures. That way for example, the slowly escalating tensions between the industrialized North and the agrarian South, seeing slavery as an economical necessity, runs through the whole season. The protagonists of North and South, Southener Orry Main (Patrick Swayze) and Yankee George Hazard (James Read) meet as cadets in West Point, fight together in the Mexican American War, and then close deals together as owners of the first cotton mill in the South. A lot of factories in the South these days used slave labor. But Ray Herbeck points out: "Honestly, how can a Northener, opposed to slavery, be partner of his friend in a mill run by slaves?" So, they laid out this scene as to George making free labor to a condition of the partnership.

Investigations on the social custumaries in the mid 19th century became very important to form out the many festivities that strengthened the friendship between the Hazards and the Mains. "I have learned two important things," Chuck McLain remembers. "Men never discussed in the ball room, and you never questioned a woman - assuming, they didn't have an opinion." (The actresses from the 20th century, depicting these ladies, on the other hand very often asked for these conditions of the 19th century. Actress Lesley-Anne Down, playing Orry's love Madeline Fabray, as well as Genie Francis and Terri Garber, being Orry's sisters Brett and Ashton, deeply looked into source books as Mary Chesnut's Civil War, Voices from the Slavery and The Confederate Ordeal.

Nothing was left out in the strive for exactness. Detailed reports on the life in West Point during the 19th century was aquired, covering all areas from field drills to behavior during tactical black board schooling. (Because West Point today has very little in common with the academy of 1842, the filming of the West Point scernes took place at the Historic Jefferson College near Natchez. Local military cadets and officer students were used as their ancestors from the 19th century and even got permission to not cut their hair for 6 months for the appropriate appearances of that time period.)

Depictrions and drawings of historical figures were aquired for those that should take part as fictional characters - includung Abraham Lincoln (Hal Holbrook), Frederick Douglass (Robert Guillaume) and John Brown (Johnny Cash). Pages and pages of military uniforms were studied and used as templates for tailors and outfitters.

Herbeck found out that people supporting secession in South Carolina wore small pins with the Palmetto insignia of their state, called "secession cockades". And while no example of those cockades was to be found, they were remodeled on the basis of an old photograph. (These were discivered by National Park historian David Ruth during filming, and this way the cockades today are shown in Fort Sumter museum with North and South mentioned as recoverer.)

Herbeck also researched on typical child games of the time for director Richard Heffron to be used as background actions. On Heffron's advide, Chick McLain designed a word game for children into the script, pointing out the opposite personality of Orry Main's younger sisters ("The minister's cat is an awful cat", episode 3).

Herbeck insisted to use an open-lense camera of the 19th century in one of the scnees, and after McLain's search with the ABC team, photographer Dean Williams got this role (episode 4, at Ashton's wedding to James Huntoon).

Timely music was implented for illustration of the political alignments: "Yankee Doodle" for the election campign in the North, and the hymn "Dixie's Land" respectively for the South (episodes 5 and 6), "Clear the Track" and "John Brown's Body" for the abolitionist movement (episodes 2 and 5), as well as "Stell Away to Jesus" with the coded message to freedom for the plantation slaves (episode 9).

The 4th Georgia Regimental Brass Band, a fitting brass ensebble, was used in different scenes, and the historian for american social dances, Desmond F. Strobel, tought the main and supporting actors to perform the Sicilian Circle and the Lancers Quadrille. (The big ball in honor of the two families, where Strobel used professional dancers, was filned at the historic Stanton Hall in Natchez, MS.)

Dialect expert Robert Easton provided the linguistical authenticity. He gave the essential voice coloring to Wendy Kilbourne as Constance Flynn and studied with the members of the Main family, from England born Jean Simmons (matriarch Clarissa) to Tennessean Lewis Smith (cousin Charles) the peculiarities of the contemporary coastal dialect of South Carolina.

One of the most exiting attributions of Herbeck was hos engagement of "reenactors" - amateur groups, re-playing specific periods of the american past for their own fun and to learn from it - to bring more quality into the scenes by their lividly multitide. In South Carolina, reenactor groups - among them decendants of Confederate soldiers having in fact shot on Fort Sumter 124 years before - staged the first shots that started the Civil War. Others celebrated secession night (December 20th, 1860) on the historic Church Street in Charleston. Or they acted as Union soldiers and abolitionists.

Herbeck even found a group specially able to re-stage the Mexican American War battle of Churubusco (1847) in an field near Natches, MS. In mid May, 14 reenactor units from a dozen states took some weeks of vacation from their normal jobs and took part in what became to be the biggest authentical lineup of Mexican War reenactors of all times. With a strength of more than 140, all arived at their own expenses, with their (mostly self-manufactured) timely correct uniforms, hand guns and canons, equipment, dishes, wagons, field ambulances, tents and camp materials. The production provided water, hay, fodder and sawdust for the horses, powder supply for the weapons, and a donation to every unit taking part.

On the basis of Herbeck's research efforts, production designer Arch Bacon rebuilts Churubusco including its stone bridge, the fortifications and the Mexican village. Herbeck with the commanders of the individual units, depicting the 5th and 8th U.S. infantry, the dragoons, marksmen, Texas Rangers and volunteers on the one side and Mexican infantry and artillery on the other side, set up the battle the way it actually had happened. They even brought in some American movable field artillery - an important military development from the Mexican war. In regard to the blasts of the guns and the rising smoke and dust, director Richard Heffron filmed the action with four different cameras - the first time that an authentical repetition of the Mexican war was captured on film!

Ray Herbeck's own unit was portrait to the Hayes Rangers - and Ray himself was in the middle of the action. Dressed in a light blue battle shirt, dirty military trowsers, battle boots, a colt 44 on the belt and a Texas star on his blue cap and at the boots, with long hair, bushy beard and pinched eyes, he looked perfect for that role. When the Mexicans closed up, Ray tumbles back to officer George Hazard, a Texas flag in hand. His report: "We are on retreat!" was bad for the momentary situation, but his moment was great, a well-earned honor for one of the unseen heroes of North and South.

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Challenges In Logistics

For film makers to deliver a good work, viewers shall not notice how much head-breaking, nerve-straining, back-breaking, nearly-impossible challenges had to be overcome to bring John Jakes' bestsellers to the screen.

Think of it:

Four writers transform James' 740 page strong novel into a script of 540 pages, containing 12 hours in 940 particular scenes.
Two years of script-writing and pre-production, five months of effective filming in five states, and four months of post-production passed between conception and airing.
The filming timetable had 177 pages - 70 pages more than the actual script for a typical 2 hour movie. These 177 pages were full of specifications for 124 days of filming with 12 hours each on 6 days per week (we were only lucky with Memorial Day that presented the only 2-day-weekend to us).
Two dozen vehicles - including camera cranes, generators, supply trucks, mobile homes, a crew bus and several tow trucks for 3.300 costumes, 1.500 pieces for furniture, 15.000 props and decoration parts and hundrets of camera and light equipment had to travel more than 2,500 miles - from the movie ranches and mexican backdrops in California to the carfully preserved estates, historic streets and rich gardens of the South. On board were 30 actors, 100 supporting acts and 5,200 statis with more than 100 heads of crew.

Everyone of these statistics is backed by incountable decisions by the head of project under the leadership of:

Executive producer David L. Wolper, who has relayed the novel to Warner Brothers Television and ABC;
Executive producer Chuck McLain, who already started making a tv format from the novel when he still was Warner Brother's vice president for tv movies and mini series;
Producer Paul Freeman, who saw the movements between the North and South locations as "more exciting than following a family in The Chisholms all over the country." (The 16 hour series he had produced some years ago).
director Richard T. Heffron, who finally was responsible for the translation of the story to the screen.

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Locations

Freeman once called the enterprise "a giant circus", because every move to a new location required a complex balance and the cost of valuable filming time. Over months, eight states were searched for locations according the requirements of the script and making necessary as less moves as possible.

The longest consecutive work was done in Charleston, SC, were the greatest part of the story of North and South is situated. In this carefully conservated city, we found historical buildings like Boon Hall, this wonderful plantation with its 200 years old oak alley road, that found use als "Mont Royal" and the home of the Main family from the South. Or Calhoun Mansion, that became the etstate of the Hazard family from the North.

In St. Francisville, LA the rebuilt Greenwood Plantation was to be "Resolute", home of the brutal Justin LaMotte and his subdued wife Madeline.

Natchez, MS like Charleston provided several locations for North and South. The historic Stanton Hall delivered the interior of "Mont Royal", Jefferson College had the architecture of West Point in the 19th century. An abandoned railroad depot at downtown was transformed to "Hazard Iron Works", while a farm of many acres in size became the base of the Curubusco battle in the Mexican war.

Near Camden, AR, a historic railroad track and it's rolling stock was transformed to Harpers Ferry for John Brown's bloody raid.

But not only the locations ware factors to the timetable. "Some of the real logistical problems are related to the extras of the movie," Paul Freeman explains. "We invited some really extraordinary guest actors - Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Hal Holbrook, Johnny Cash - and we had to be ready for their scenes when these stars were available. For this to work out, we couldn't get into time delay, or it the price would have been very high for us."

Another extra with the potential for problems was the filming in historical quarters. The dates were set as the historical add-ons like sand in the streets would disturb the normal traffic and bussinesses the least possible. But unexpecting events like a sudden rain shower on the day of Lincoln's inauguration could put the best schedule to the test. Concerning the weather, Freeman says, "It is especially thrilling to do indoor scenes at the same location but to hope also that you don't really need them. Because replacement scenes always mean that you get behind schedule and lose costly outdoor time. Besides, I cannot film "Mont Royal" anywhere else."

Much attention was to put to the historic buildings themselves and the work to be done to prevent them from damages by technicians, equipment and participants. And this is a huge responsibility, when you are filming in such national memorials as the Heyward Washington House, a more than 200 years old brick estate of a rich Charlestonian baron having hosted George Washington there as his guest in 1791 (the scene was made here when Bent meets the gun dealer in Charleston of 1865). Because it is in the sense of historical correctness, to give North and South such full flavors.

"We are handling a wealthy family from the North and a wealthy family from the South, so we want to show where those people have lived in, the victorian furniture as used at that time, the contemporary clothes, and so on - all the details showing how they were living at that time," Chuck McLain further explains. "The same care was put to details on the other end of the spectrum like the original slave quarters of Boone Hall. It feels as to remake Gone With The Wind five times over."

A lot of this was achieved by hiring the best talors and outfitters, makind sure that all is fitting to the smallest detail - like the buquet for Ashton's wedding not made by real flowers but by wax because brides used it that way then. Or that candles don't like those from Woolworths. Or that flowers didn't look like put there by propmakers.

Where the historical structures were fitting, but the furniture was not, or where the costly historical peaces were to sensitive and cannot be used, our company bought their own peaces like a bronce and ebony statue for 200,000 dollar decorating the house of the magnificent Madame Conti (Elizabeth Taylor).

Where a fitting location was not to find, they built backdrops with the same love for details. For the scene with the old and paramedic experienced black woman, we built a honmely looking cabin amidst the swamps of Charlestom Cypress Gardens. Decorator Chuck Corian used his own knowledge on traditional medicine of the Indians with researches on healing methods brought in from Africa and created from that a convincing structure, so that the park administration asked it to remain for visitors.

The pressure on production quality brought such a good climate, tells us Chuck McLain, that the actors were able to really bring to life John Jakes' powerful characters. "When actors arrive at such a location, they get an understanding of the people that have lived there, and they can feel as good there as in their own home. This, together with the wardrobe, makes them act unbiased.

The costumes have theor own important role in the authentical appearance of North and South. With the exception to uniforms in the military and the servants, no piece of wardrobe was used more than once. We took some 3,000 pieces of clothing from the storages of the Burbank Studios and from costume houses in Hollywood. A young supporting actor even found a note in his coat saying "Mickey Rooney". About 100 dresses were taken from renowned outfitter Berman & Nathans in London, as well as some satin wear from the 1830s, with others borrowed from local historical collections. Many of the dresses were produced based on historical drawings, as the spectacular green and golden Charles Worth-Original satin dress (Constance in episode 5), a copy true to the detail to one by the then leading designer.

The costumes provided an unexpected problem: by the men and women in the 1980s being mostly taller than in the earlier generations, it restricted the wardrobe available to size and weight of the about 5,200 statis significantly.

Despite these limitations, some surprising names of local inhabitants found their way among the participants:

The daughters of Senator Storm Thurmond of South Carolina, Nancy and Julie, had their filming debut als young versions of Ashton and Brett Main.
The congressman himself had a single and easy to remember dialog to deliver, the shout of "No!"
Alveda King Beal from the Just Us Theater in Atlanta, wo was in George Bush's parlament for four years and is the niece of civil rights fighter Martin Luther King, took a role as a slave of all things.
Debra Rosen took one day off from her stressful work behind as director of the State Movie Office of South Carolina to stage in flowing red dress and matching underwear as one of Madame Conti's ladies.
Amalie Stone Walker, a well-known figure of Charleston society, not only appeared in several scenes, but offered her 1853 built italian style villa at the South Battery to the production. She was so enthusiastic on the actors and film makers that she inveted them to her daughter's wedding and filled up her driveway with sand for it, just like we did it weeks before for the movie.

The work with local inhabitants and non-actors as statis in crowded scenes can get to a nightmare, but first assistant director Skip Cosper arranged the background actors with great skill. He managed 200 Charlestonians to clap and cheer on an abolitionistic speech. With 250 more, he very calmly formed an uneasy mob under the fireworks of secession night. And very sensitively he guided a group of slave actors in a hurtful scene when one of them was brutally branded.

In july, the five months of filming were done. Executive producer Chuck McLain, having been on set every single day, remembers that moment. "There were times," he says, "in the scene wir Virgilia's speech, when two dozen abolitionists were marching through the rows of chairs of the Dock Street Theater singing "Clear the Track", then I had sparks in my eyes, because it turned out better that I could hope for it. And it was so well because a lot of important things came together: Dick Heffron, the crew, the wardrobe, the makeup, and so on. I had a lot of those moments. It was marvelous."

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A Talk With David L. Wolper

Executive producer of North and South

(translated to German and re-translated to English by uh since not to be found online any more)

F: First comes first: At the beginning, how did you get on North and South?

A: Somebody told me about John James' novel, I red it, and I thought it would make a wonderful mini-series. It's on a period of the American history - the time before the Civil War frin 1842 on - that to my knowledge had not been made for television, in movies or in other form this way before. ABC agreed, and I acquired John James' next novel, Love and War, that follows the characters throught the Civil War. I am glad to say that the filming for North and South weit so positive, that ABC extended the project to 12 hours and agreed to another 12 hours on North and South Book II based on John Jakes' Love and War. Never before a network had made such a far reaching devision for a mini-series to be aired in the same season.

F: You had produced the most successful mini-series of all times - Roots and The Thorn Birds. Which elements have to go together to make a mini-series successful, and why did you see North and South to be suitable in that regard?

A: I believe, to be successful as a mini-series, three requirements must be met:

l) it must be based on a great, singular and successful novel - like The Thorn Birds

2) it must be about a massive social event - like Holocaust or Roots

3) it must dramatize a historical figure or event, like Masada or George Washington

If a project meets all these points, in my mind it can be a success. And North and South meets two of them.

F: And these are...?

A: First, it is a great, well-selling novel by a masterful author, John Jakes. And second, the event is historic. I don't think that a mini-series with the original story of a historic event can be successful because you can't make it special enough. North and South is about a intense, moving time that influences the lives and toughts in America to this day, and it is a theme that hadn't been done before. The 20 years before the Civil War in fact is a virgin part for a drama. The historical story also is a costume play, and you don't see that often in television either. The costumes are important because they quickly bring the viewers to another world. This is something very special also. A mini-series must be an event, something the viewers will say, "I don't want to miss that. I stay at home. I will not switch to another network. I will not go to the movie theater. I will not go out for dinner. I will stay home and watch it these four or five nights." So, it must become an event. I think that mini-series are tie top of television productions, and I work for them most of my time these days.

F: You filmed in in South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas - far off the anemities of the Studios and tie movie industrie in Southern California. Has it been woth the effort?

A: Effort is not the question. The wouldn't have the means to rebuilt the originally preserved antebellum houses in Charleston and Natchez in Hollywood. We were in houses with the original furnitures, the original walls - completely original. You cannot do something like that on a stage, and exacly that is decisive. It is the Old South: great plantations, colorful dresses, hundrets of acting people - it is a big, magnificent thing. I see only predecesor here that we emulate: Gone With The Wind.

F: The list of main actors of North and South contains 13 names with some of them being relatively unknown. At the same time, you have some VERY popular names as guest stars. How did you lay out the casting?

A: We were looking for big stars for specific supporting roles. But we wanted to make sure that the character fits well to the role - big names not only on the name. So, Hal Holbrook for example plays Abraham Lincoln. I couldn't think on someone else ever. He already has one an Emmy for his Lincoln-impersonation in my Sandburg's Lincoln, and I was happy the get him again. His voice, his liiks, his standing, his manners are absolutely perfect. He is unparalleled. Elizabeth Taylor has a role larger than life as pleasure house owner, with her scenes being a important piece in the storytelling, and Elizabeth Taylor is truely a person lager than life. Johnny Cash has the fitting appearance of elemental force for John Brown. Gene Kelly is a veteran, giving his part as Senators a relaxed and also thoughtful aura. Robert Mitchum plays an irish officer in the army, and Mitchum himself is a lifelong irishman. That way, everyone of our special stars attributed something to the project, and even these were small roles, they are important pieces to the overall picture.

F: And the main roles?

A: The key roles are Orry Main and George Hazard, one from the South and one from the North. They meet at West Point as young men, the grow up together, they get to be business partners, their families get married to each other, the form relationships that are threatened to break by the shadows of the Civil War. They are the driving force of the story: one of the is very emotional and agitated, the other one is more relaxed and cosmopolitan. We follog them over a 19 years time span, developing from youth to midlife age, and it is very hard for an older actor to play an 18 year dold. With Patrick Swayze and James Read we have to young actors, who only made younger for the West Point years and then stay relatable as years progressed and have the strength to carrie the story.

F: Because North and South covers the years leading up to the Civil War, and we see the people take their side. What side does the story take?

A: Apart from really evil characters, it is hard to find a real hero. We like the boys, we like their families. We see the story from both perspectives. When they ultimately face each other in the war, we don't take either one's side but hope that the whole thing might be over soon for the people to get together again.

F: You said, that ancient stories make no good mini-series in general. How can we take up a story that starts 20 years before the Civil War? That is 140 years ago.

A: One of the reasons why I took on this thing is to understand the relations of the people in those times. Sometimes I think about it related to today. How would it be if this country suddenly wound be threatened to fall into to pieces? Think of all the broken-up individual connections. If you are a New Yorker and your wife came from Atlanta, then her family wound be the enemy. If you live in Nashville and your business partner is in Philadelphia, your busines would be done. People had made relations that would all be torn apart. A horrable imagination. There would be enormous tensions. But that exactly is what makes a good drama. And that exactly is what we have in North and South.

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Reflections by Mark Wolper

An internet interview executive producer David L. Wolper's son, himself producer on North and South

Source: Youtube uploaded Dec 4th, 2024

(Note: transcribed by listening by uh, repeated fillers as "you know" of "I guess" intentionally left out)

Q: So firstly, when you think on North and South, what comes to mind?

A: Ahm, it was an unbelivably great - probably - four years of my life. It was like a new family, a complete family, that we lived and ate and drank and worked together across this long period of time, which there were births and marriages, and new loves, and lost loves. So, it was living in this to be the equivalent of the four of five years that you do your A & O levels, with the same group of people. But we were all adults, and we were all working. We didn't act like adults, but we were all adults, living this incredible experience of translating this novel into this big mini-series.

Q: I think, I'm right saying, North and South was one of, if not the most expensive mini-series ever made at that point in '85. So, did it seem like a big deal at the time?

A: Oh, yeah, without question. When I was standing there on these days when we were having these Civil War reenacment days, and putting together these giant battle sequences with over a thousand reenactors from all over the United States, all have come there to camp out and live there while we did this film. I've never seen anything like that in my life. It was just this unbelivable experience. We weren't the first to use these group of reenactors, because Glory had done it before. But we had heard about how Glory had used these groups called reenactors, and basically we didn't pay them salaries. All we had to do is, give 'em land, give 'em food, give 'em bathrooms, and give 'em water, and they were willing to come and... Needless to say, it wasn't cheep, feeding them all. 'Cause it was literally in the morning at 5 - they camped out as we were filming, like they built whole... There is the North and the South, they had separate areas, they wouldn't room together, and they built whole camps like, one had six hundred and the other had four hundred people in their camps, and the had... In the morning, they would play their trumpet, and they'd all line up and they come to our catering trucks in full formation, and marched in in their uniforms, and marched to our trucks and passed our crew to get their food in the morning. It's just this incredible experience that was less about the money spent than the size and the magnitude of what we were trying to do.

Q: Your father, David Wolper, was really instrumental in getting North and South to the screen from the page just a couple of years after John Jakes' first North and South book. So, can you remember on just how that just came about and how influencial your father was in that suppose?

A: Well, he... he has found his very successfull nitch... All of you, like any good artist, you have to keep changing yourself, re-inventing yourself, if you wanna stay active. But during this period of time, he was in this critically popular area of translating historical dramas. My father for a long time was a documentarian. He loved documentaries, he made documentaries, he made thousands of documentaries. And at a certain point, the American television network didn't want documentaries anymore. But he still loved history. So what he did is, he created this new genre called docudrama, where he would just take a real event and hire actors out to play the roles. So he got into this thing like buying this great historical novels, written by people like John Jakes and Alex Haley and Nat Turner, and there are so many of these historical novels. And this was perfect for him. He loved American history particularily, although all-world history. And when he heard about these books that were about the American Civil War, and this story about brotherhood and love in the middle of it, he immediately was attracted to it. And his great skill set was less the making of a show, quite frankly, than was selling a show. He was a great salesman. So, he wasn't the guy who built the Lamborghini of the Ferrari engine, he was the guy who could make people pay the great engineers to make it. So, he was this great leader who was able to sell an idea and then give the money to all these great groups of film makers, which is exactly what he did here.

Q: I think, I'm right saying that during the production of each book - and please tell me if I'm wrong - but your role sort of developed from production executive to associate producer and then executive producer. How did your role evolve, and how did you find yourself got more hands on as time went on?

A: Well, it was a little bit of... I was growing into my farther's company at the same time. This show was sort of my... it wasn't my elementary school, but certainly my high school. It's, my high school education was this show. So, even that I've executive produced other things, at the massive size of this one it became the learning ground, and I progressed very quickly through it all. My father wasn't never gonna do something that I wasn't ready for, so I had to do it in steps. But my role never has changed in terms of what I was doing the whole time, because like any... weather you're a production executive, associate producer, anytime the word 'producer' is in your name, you only have one goal, and that is: whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. And so, as a producer, no matter whot pronome is before the word 'producer', you're still doing whatever it takes. So, if it was cleaning out the latrines in the reenactors' places or having a meeting with the governor of South Carolina to get him to agree to give us National Park land to use for reenactments, I had to do it.

Q: It think, we should have touched on the scope of the series at it's start. But what was the atmosphere like on set? Because you had the up-and-coming stars, the startish names, and then you had the guest stars as well, many of which were Hollywood icons. You had thousands of extras, and costumes, locations, and it seems there's a lot of moving parts to put together there.

A: Yeah, it was very very... without question, it was a extremely complex operation we were putting together. And somehow... it was less that people would like "oh, we really would..." There's really like the core cast and crew that stayed through the whole show. And then there were these people that kept coming in. And the core group that was there the whole time really enjoyed the process so much. There was such an enjoyable... I know, people always f'ing say, when they make a movie, "Oh, it was the best experience in my life working with, you know, Tom Cruise. It was such a fantastic thing." No, this really f'ing was a great experience. Everybody was having a blast, and everybody was working hard, simultaneously. When the new group came in, they could tell right away that there was a nice energy. Like you can walk in a roome sometimes and you can tell immediately if there is good energy or not. There was always a good energy in this room. And the new people coming in would be in awe how much fun we were having. And we who were there all the time were in awe of this new unbelievable actors, legendary actors that were coming in for a day or two, or three days here and there. And it just all melded very quickly all the time.

Q: You just touched on the actors there. But do you have favorite encompases of meeting or working with the actors? Because of course you had people like Patrick Swayze and James Read, who were kinda like the faces of this thing. But then you had like James Stewart in his last-ever on-screen role, and Elizabeth Taylor and Jean Simmons which today seems hard to imagine.

A: Well, I think it really started... Patrick Swayze has this amazing energy and sole and spirit when we were making this show where he's just this completely likable, fun-loving, hard-partying, hard-living kind of guy. And so, he was the fun leader, he was the camp councellor, so to speak. This was a guy who - I'm speaking a little out of school now - you know that it's fine that he would party hard all night, and we have to help him get to the set in the morning, 'cause he came right from partying to the set. But the minute the director was saying, "Roll camera!", somehow, he knew all his lines and he was on it. And then the camera would go off, and he fall back and he... he oddly was able to balance the fun and the work the whole time. And all of us were basically trying just to keep up with him, live up to his standards of both the fun and the hard work. And by the way, don't let some of the older, legendary people think that they were staudgy participants in the making of the film. They got into the groove as well.

Q: And what was it like be really at that time period and see the events of the Civil War and live up to that come-to-life and all of these complexities?

A: We had some technical advisors and I tried in vain to remember their names. They changed a lot of times, there were different technican advisors for different evcents. But for example, when we would do the Civil War enacments, we would set up for these biog shots, like 30 cameras all over the field, and the whole thing was choeographed like who was gonna go where, what everybody was gonna do, bla-bla-bla, and then the director would get there on his crane and this loudspeaker system went over this hectars of fields that we were on, and he would go, "And Action!!" And, all of the sudden, the battle would, the cannons would start firing. And the first time we did it, the entire field was covered in smoke from all the cannons and fun fire, and nobody could see anything. And it was so interresting, that historians go, "my God, nobody ever wrote about that." Like, they experienced something in the contemporary that enformed new study of the past, where they discovered, "oh yeah, we see in some diaries that they couldn't see that then either, but nobody's ever reported on that." So, events that happened on our recreations for the making of the film informed historians on things that might have happened in the past that they may had it missed, which was really interresting. So, we were really actually experiencing it for real. I mean, every day there were hundreds of people walking around in this wardrobe just like who are living, and I know, myself and some of the assistant directors, we actually worked during the day from horses. We worked on a horse, because there was such distances we had to go to communicate and exchange ideas and figure things out that we were often on horses ourselves. And so, we would put on wardrobe - actually I have a great picture of myself on a horse in wardrobe - because we were often in the shots. It took us too long to get all the way back to get out of the shots, so finally we'd say to Mark and the assistant director Josh, "Hey, Josh, Mark, won't you guys just put on wardrobe, so we don't have to wait for you to come out of the scene. You can and just stay there."

Q: Remarkable. Did you get in touch with anyone on the film North and South? Did you work with anyone on different projects? Or was it one of those things, one of those industries where everyone is together for that period of time and then everyone goes of and does their separate thing? I know, there was that three books, but...

A: Yeah. I did work with the directors. I worked with Kevin Connor who did number II again. And I did work with the director on III, ahm, his name escapes me now. You have probably more a speed up to things now than I was. But I worked with those directors again. I worked with Jean Simmons before Thornbirds, which was funny - I mean, I worked with her on Thornbirds before North and South. The cinematographer on all of them, he did a couple of shows from me in the future. So there were still some connection. But think about it, I was working on those shows for almost five years from the pre-production of the first one to the finish of the last one - it might have been more, it might have been six sears. So, it was like I was living with these people. It's not like they went off and then came back. We were just stuck with each other. Some people, there's some actors went into different professions after this, it was so exhausting for them, just like, "Alright, I've had my fill."

Q: I'm not sure, I'm gonna go to there actually, but is there either a pressure or an expectation to make North and South a hit, giving the fact that you previously worked on the Thornbirds with your father and Roots came out as well a couple of years before that and these were sort-of big hits. So, was there a sort of pressure, or let's not say pressure, but an expectation that North and South would be the next big thing really?

A: I think, every time, film makers and actors enter into the process of making a film, they're always doing under the belief that it's gonna be an academy award winner. And you always rise up to that level. I don't think that people sit around and think, "Hey, let's make a cultish B-film, B-level film," right? They're actually sitting down, when you do Shark Nato, they were actually thinking, "I'm actually really gonna make some really great movie." It just ends up becoming a B-movie. So, everybody always enters every film-making process believing that they're gonna make the best, that they have a high bar to rise up to. And we always do it. Yes, this was the hay-day of the mini-series, and we were doing the most-expensive one. So we all knew that. It was about U.S. history, and so we're making it up for American network, so we know that. I was doing it on the coat tails of my father, so I had that additional pressure. So, we all knew it, and maybe that's why we had so much fun, because we know how important what we were doing could be. And therefore you had a lot of steam, you had a lot of offense, and end up having fun as a result of it.

Q: Then, the North and South, so the books I and II kinda shot and released back to back, and book III came best part of it a decade later. Was there always to have an intention to have a third part to the story on the smooth screen, or was it to a surprise that years later they did come up about. Do you remember how that happened?

A: I think, what happened was is, John Jakes and I were taking on another project, and he goes, "Why didn't you guys never finished the last part of it?" And I hadn't even remembered that we didn't. And I go, "Oh, sh.. that's a great idea." It was successful enough, and we've been... it's been long enough since the last one. We should cosider doing this again." And so there was a very easy sale. - Actually, I take that back. It was... not an easy sale. We took it to the... wasn't that not a different network now? Or might I even get this messed up with one of our other shows? But anyways... you know, there's always that fear, when you do something super successful, you don't wanna get into this thing of eating your children, like let's burn it out, let's go again, like pushing it to far. I think, the difficulties and amount of time and the energy, and how tired we all were after the first two, that we're like, okay, let's just let this sit. And then time goes by, and you're working on other shows, and you forget that there's even a possibility to doing a third one, until I was talking to John Jakes. And we're like, "Oh sh.., let's finish this trilogy off."

Q: What did working on North and South kinda do for your career? See, it didn't put you awful, too.

A: Well, I'm honored to say that I worked on three of the most successful mini-serieses of all time, thanks to a patriarchy of my father. But working on Thornbirds, working on North and South and working on Queen, which was a kind of a Roots-reimagining, and then doing Roots a second time about seven or eight years ago, I fell into the very lucky situation of being able to do great historical drama like my father.

Q: So that practically, fourty years on now, what do you think is the enduring impact and legacy of North and South, and could you imagine that fourty years from now that people will still watching it and will they still be talking about all this time later?

A: I think, it's even more valuable in today's history, because the line of divide still exists. It still exists in America more now than it ever has. And maybe you have just inspired idea of maybe to make North and South yet again, because it certainly resonates with what's going on, not only in America, but in Russia and Ukraine, in Israel and Gaza. I mean, it's always an ongoing story of countries and people divided by an imaginary line.

Q: No, no, absolutely. I think these were the main points to ask you, really. And without having you to put you on the spot, is there anything either you feel like missed or you feel like to add. There might mit be, but certainly there is anything that jumps out to you, you are more than welcome to say, Sir.

A: Well, you're certainly familiar with the multiple weddings that happened on the show, and love stories that happened. And a think it was really how to function we were all caged together so-to-speak. I think, I have a better understanding of American history because I worked on the show, like it was a masters course in American history, Civil War history. And it served me well in shows I did later, doing Roots again, in doing Queen, in doing Murder in Mississippi that was a civil rights film that I did. So, and the lessens that I learned, and the groth that I gained, and the fun that I had. So, some of the best-- not some of -- the best memories I have in the film industry are those first two North and South's.

Q: That's an amazing theory. Interresting to hear that I spoke a couple of weeks ago to Bob Pasian who was who was on Juice pt. 2--

A: Yeah. He was really the guy, I mentored by the way under Bob. Bob was really my... You know, my father was really there, obviously, back in L.A., but Bob was really there. So he really was my mentor on this show. And I learned a lot from Bob Pasian.

Q: Let's see how's kinda saying that. See, that you have the huge experience for having iconified all of it afterwards, you always are trying to chase that same experience you had with North and South, and the other things that went after it were all so great, but it always came back to North and South really. Ain't nothing kind of surpassed that.

A: I can agree with that. That was an incredible period ot time, and incredible story, and an incredible mini-series, and you can talk about putting all of the best elements together for a project in the entertainment industry. I say, this is the amaizing thing about the entertainment industrie, where you can take the top director, the top actor, the top producer, the top screen writer, the top composer, and you can put then together, and you may not have a great show. And sometimes, you can put a bunch of unknowns together and end up with an incredible show. And North and South was kind of this odd blend of both.

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From James Read's Family Tree

(translated to German and re-translated to English by uh since not to be found online any more)

The following informations normally don't appear in the assessment of an actor, not even in his curriculum vitae mentioning his home town and the stages he perforned on. But in the instance of the family of James Read (lower picture) it is significant, that there were two actual participants of the Civil War.

Great grandfather: Sampson T. Groves (upper lieft, standing), 1834 - 1916, joined the U.S. Army in 1863, served in Company M, 1st Ohio Volunteer Heavy Artillery, was discharged hohorably on July 25th, 1865.

Great great uncle: Sebaldus Hassler (upper right, seated), born 1835 in Germany, joined the U.S. Army on Septemper 12th, 1861, served in the 37th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in Company E, was killed on May 20th, 1863 in the battle for Vicksburg (three months prior his 28th birthday).

That was very long ago, and it has nothing to do with an actor's environment of agents, scripts, bills and negotiatios, but today it has an important place in the life of actor James Read, because he now portraits a central figure in John James' epic work North and South on the disrupting nation. James Read plays George Hazard, a young man from the North, who'se West Point edication leads him the the Union Army.

"I believe to have heard about these ancestors when I was a child," the actor remembers. "But I didn't give any thoughts to it. Today, this connection gives me a very good feeling. It is a source of pride."

Groves and Hassler are ancestors on his mother's side: Groves in the line of mother - father - mother - father, Hassler in mother - father - father - brother. This family line came to America "problably came in the late 17th century". His father's family on the other hand were relatively new to the country, having arrived in the late 1800s.

During the filming for North and South at places in South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, Read found out that "…for the first time, I was feeling like an 'Northerner'. Normaly I fell myself simply as an 'American', but so many people in the South still cary wounds from the Civil War with them as if it has happened just yesterday. It was not easy to have longer talks with Southerners without mentioning the war, and without feeling as a 'Northerner'."

Read looks at his ancestors' pictures. "These are the real comrades of George Hazard, exactly here," he said. "They would be under my command. This is all very emotional, if you make such a personal relationship."

Other Family Stories

The Civil War is part of their own family story for many of the North and South actors with some ancestors having fought there.

In North and South, the clock is ticking, the calender is turning, and the Civil War is lingering. The center of the story is made of two american families. One owns a plantation - and slaves - in South Carolina. The other one owns a foundry in Pennsylvania - and despise slavery. The 12 hour, 6 part story of this family friendship amidst all signs of the upcoming war is based on the bestseller written by John James. For some actors - as for many others in all parts of America - the Civil War is more than some script: the Civil War is part of family history.

James Read and Patrick Swayze are portraying the two young men bringing together their families with their West Point friendship. James Read is George Hazard, the "Yankee", and James Read's great great Uncle Sebaldus Hassler fought in the Union Army and was killed at May 20th, 1863 at Vicksburg, MS. Read's great grandfather Sampson T. Groves served in the 1st Ohio Volunteer Heavy Artillery until his honorable discharge on July 25th, 1865. He achieved a high age.

Author John Jakes also knows his own family history. "My great grandfather Michael Jakes and both his brothers Nelson and Isaac Newton Jakes served in the Civil War, all of them in Indiana Volunteer regiments," he reports. "I have copies of their complete military documents. Michael Jakes only made it one year and was then - like so many others - wounded and mustered out. Nelson served about two years until having the same fate. Isaac served from start to finish - with Sherman in Georgia and all this - and was formally mustered out in 1866."

Morgan Fairchild, a guest artist, who'se character becomes very important in North and South Book II, is a girl from Texas, and her Civil War heritage is reflecting in this. Her great grandfather James Thomas Madison Hartt and her great uncle Thomas LaRue both rode in the command of Company H, 70th Texas Cavalry. And her great grandfather John LaRue served in the 11th Brigade of the Texas state militia. All three of them survived the war.

Hal Holbrook, staging Abraham Lincoln as a guest star, offers a family rememberance that shows where the gaps are. "Despite the family on my father's side reaches back to 1634 in Massachusetts," he tells us, "and on my mother's side back to John Smith's colony, we are not lucky to have Civil War heroes in our line. My great grandfather was in the war, but he fell asleep on extra guard duty and was threatened with execution when he once more will neglect his duties. This drove him crazy as much that he ended up in an assylum."

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Behind the Scenes

(translated to German and re-translated to English by uh since not to be found online any more)

Report By An Extra On The Train Scene In Episode 1, Mike McDowell

I was an Extra in North and South during the filming in Camden, AR in 1985. At that time, I was the town manager of Camden.

In eposide 1 I am well visible in the scene when Orry and George are on their way to West Point (the scene with the parted Dollar note). I have about five minutes camera time and am sitting behind Orry. My woman says to this day that I overacted but I just followed their directions.

I was at location for three days. It was July and incredibly hot. At 4:30 p.m., the local extras were called to the school of the village to take our wardrobe to be at location at around 6 p.m. Schoolbusses transfered us to there. We received only a smale salary, bit I remember that the meal provided there was very good.

Ambitious parents brought their kids to Camden over hundrets of miles and tried to get them into the film. They got angry when the producers told them that children had an minimal role only in this movie.

Lots of local south Arkansas citizens took part, and I remember that they are visible in multiple scenes, especially with trains and depots. I watched the scene with John Brown's raid being filmed, but I had not part in it. I met most of the mini-series' main actors in Arkansas. They most were very friendly and open, especially Patrick Swayze. I saw that Patrick nearly passed out on location a several times from the heat. The heat was unbearable, especially for the Hollywood people that were not used to it.

The main reason for filming in Arkansas was the Reader Railroad, a working steam engine and an authentic tourist passenger train running on the old rail system outside of Camden. The Arkansas Film Commission had great influence on Wolper filming in Arkansas. The crew even built a big depot made of plywood over the existing tracks. The scenes with the train entering this depot was filmed there. From the inside you don't see that it is made of plywood.

The film crew also made some other scenes in Camden, but I wasn't there.

The heat inside of the plywood depot on a summer afternoon, caused by the weather, the many actors and extras, the steam engine, the spotlights and the very heavy wool clothing was unbelievable. The crew had to install big ventilators behind the camera and provide great amounts of ice water and cold lemonade. I lively remember Kristie Alley standing in front of one of the ventilators and lifting her skirt to cool down. I also remember a participants picknich with some of the stars and crew members and all the local extras after the filming was finished. I played softball with the actors.

The greatest care by the producers was put to the historical accuracy. During the railroad scene mentioned, Patrick Swayze asked if he and James Read could put off the heavy wool coats and may sit there just in there shirts. The director had to ask the historial advisor if it was proper for a gentleman in the late 1830s to sit in a railroad car without his coat on. The answer was, "when it's hot like this." At that moment, all men in the train put off their coats. Unfortunately, the ladies hat nothing to put off, and they neary died from the heat. We were in that train for about two and a half hours until the shots were taken from every angle imaginable. I took great pleasure to see from the inside the technices used to make a movie.

At premiere night in November of 1985, I was very nervous. I had watched North and South, especially the first episode, several times since then of course. I esecially like it as the producers pay their thank to the people in Camden and Ouachita County, AR in the credits. I always will be a fan of this show, because it is a part of my life.

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Report By The Engineer On The Train Scene In Episode 10, Tony Reed

It was December of 1985. The film crew appeared as planned and I thought that we were to make a few exterior shots only. We had the engine and four cars prepared for that day and were watiting for the crew to get ready. Mark Wolper (the son of the produver David Wolper) wanted to speak to the engineer. After he had explained to me what we would have to do at that day, he told me that I will have a speaking role in the movie. A agreed, but I was nervous.

Then we received our wardrobe. I had no idea that my clothes was lying right on the floor of an unheated bus. The make-up was not difficult, some sprayed-on greese and dirt was enough, At that time, all persons and all the material had been loaded onto the train. I came from the make-up and saw cannons, rifles and Civil War soldiers on my train. Were were ready to go. As agreed with the director, I used the steam whistle and we drove off deep into the woods. After about two miles, the director decided this to be the suitable place for the scene. The camera and sound equipment was unloaded besides the tracks.

The first setup was a realtime run. For this, cameras were placed at differend places offside from the train in the woods. About 30 minutes later, I was given a walkie talkie, and I cound go to action. I rolled about half a mile back and then told them, "I'm coming now!" But unfortunately, the track ran somewhat uphill, the rails were slippery and I didn't get enough speed. I tried it again and again, but it didn't work! They filmed it everytime, but I started getting frustrated, because I wanted to deliver a good show after all. I then explained the situation to the director. He told me, I should do what is necessary to make that turn. I climbed back onto the engine and pushed back more than a whole mile to even track. Two Union soldiers were sitting there with their muskets on the head of the engine, and I told them to better hold onto really good. The engine whistled and I told the crew to get ready.

When we got a substantial speed, the Union soldier on my side grabbed the handle and looked worried back to me! As we arrived at the filming location, I was running with about 40 mph, and the soldiers feard for the lives! I passed the cameras and rolled around a corve, with almost full open throttle. I slowed down, rolled back to where they all were waiting and heard the director call: "Cut, and done!" He smiled from one ear to the other when he shook my hand. By the way, James Read enjoyed the whole thing. He constandly questioned me about the engine.

They also made some shots from bridges that we crossed. Then, we did the wildest thing that I was part of ever as an engineer. A camera man laid down right besides the rail so that he could film the wheels of the engine passing him. When I reached him in considerable speed, I had to reverse the engine to the wheels to spin backwards. When I reached the marked spot, he was so close to the rail that I couldn't see him! I was very glad to have made this scene well.

Finally we had lunch break, so we rolled back to the loading depot. On this trip, the director was on the engine with me. I believe he watched his sound man adjusting something. The he extended his hand and made the steam whistle howl. The sound man probably didn't understand his humor. He very quickly took down his headphones and set down his equipment.

When we ate, the horses were loaded up and the Confederate soldiers prepared themselves for their scene. Somewhat offside, the "bomb crew" prepared their things. Then we steamed back into the woods. At the filming location we waited until the pyro technicians wer ready, one in front and one behind the train. These "bombs" consisted of a gas bullet, ignited electrically. In our approach, one bomb would ignite before us. When we try to escape backwards, the Confederates would pursue os on horseback and there would be small fightings. At that time I didn't know that soldiers would fall of the train when there were hit.

After some minutes this way, they would detonate the bomb behind us and I would stop the train as fast as possible. Inside this sequence there would be my internal scene with James Read. The director asked me how fast I could run backwards. I said that I would be faster than the horses. He said, "No, no, the horses have to reach the train." Right before the start, he came back to me again and admonished me not to miss my return mark or otherwise I would "grill" the soldiers at the front of the engine!

We filned this scene several times to get it in multiple angles. We ignited around 30 bombs on that day. I don't know how the soldier on the engine could survived this. When the bombs goes off you could feel the shock wave, the fire splashes all around. I remember that we often - after the director has called "Cut!" - ran into the woods and quelled little fires. I don't believe that there was any real danger, especially because of the many extras.

After this scene was done, we were ready for that day. We had filmed from sun-up to sun-down. I was really glad when rolling back with all the people and all the material. It was a little magic. Now I was able to relax. On the return trip, the director absolutely had to use the steam whistle once more. This time, the sound man was ready for it.

The next day, the internal secne was to be filmed. Before we departed, James Read and the other actors rehearsed the ambush scene in the depot. After wardrobe and make-up we steamed into the woods again. In the first scene, I am standing on the engine with James Read (the Union general) and my stund fireman. We filmed different angles of the three of us at different locations to later insert these close shots into the main scene. That was great, no pressure.

When they prepared for the dialoghe scene, I tried to remember my lines. I think they were worried at first that I had to read my text so often. But on the other side, they took me without knowing if I can act at all. The director asked me how firm I felt to be. I told them, I could do it, but one of the lines would not be correct. The script said James read to enter the engine on the fireman's side and then step over behind the fireman to the back of me. The I would say, "Don't worry, General, we will reach the depot well before dark." James Read will answer, "While we take up cole and water, I telegraph General Grant that we are on our way." James Read will look back over the tail of the engine to the men and then returns to his seat. Secolds later and after the first blast, he was to exclaim, "Anbush! Break!" I explained to the director and James Read that locomotives of that time had no breakes. In order to slow down, the engine had to be reversed. He asked me what to say in such a situation. I said, "Halt and back it up!" He instandly altered that line.

We filmed this scene many, many times.

I thought that every take was essentialy the same, with one exception. One time, after we had spoken our dialogue, James Read padded my left shoulder. I was really surprised and I thought that I had jumped three feet up. But I didn't do that appearently, because it was exactly that take that they took for the movie.

At this scene, there were so many participants on the engine, and between the takes it often got quite loud. At one time, the director had enough and sent everyone that was no actor off the engine. I closed the throttle, set the break and got ready to climb off. He asked me what I was doing, and I said to him, "I get off the engine." He then called out, "No, no, you are an actor!"

After all had calmed down, we continued with our work. While the crew provieded for light and sound, James Read and I sat around and talked. He seemed to be very interrested in how a steam locomotive operated. When I explained that to another person one time, I turnd and noticed him literally hanging over my shoulder.

Then we did the fighting scene. While backing up, a Confederate soldier climbs the engine and starts a fist fight with James Read. This was filmed in different angles in the cabin. In the fight, both actors moved slowly to the rim of the engine. After hanging some time to the side, they both drop to the ground. James Read did this all by himself. The stunt double only took the part when the Rebel actually pushed him against the water tank (filmed from behind) and they finally fell off.

An interresting detail on the stunt double of James Read: he had forgotten his beard, so we had to take some wool, color it black and glue it on. It was a silly task. If you look closely, it actually has a blue stint.

After the fight on the floor, a Confederat general comes in on his horse. They do their dialogue, and James Read goes into prison. This scene was first filmed in another way than to be seen in the movie. After the second explosion, the train halts (filmed the day before) and the Confederate general rides alongside the back of the train on my side to the front. When he reaches the engine, I will be in the cabin window and hold my hands up in fear. Riding by, he shoots me and I drop to the cabin floor. This was my great death scene. It was some 4 food drop to a very hard floor of steel, and I had no stunt double! We filmed this about a dozen times. Every time it hurt a little more. The scene was good, but in the end they saw it as a little too cold-blooded.

During the dialogue scene between the Confederate general and James Read, I climbed off the engine and could watch from behind the camera (I also needed a break). They changed the setup between every take, put things up a little different, and filmed it again. The engine as their background was growing steam all the time and started getting noisy. This brought the sound man into troubles. The director asked my what that is and if something could be done to silence the engine. I explained that the motionless engine with the big fire in the fire box constantly cooks steam. So we hat to take a break from filming every couple of minutes to let pressure get from the boiler.

The last setup was when my fireman fell of the engine after being shot. The scene was filmed by two angles, from the water tank and fore from the back of the train. The stunt coordinator and the director agreed that because of the riskness it had to be filmed in one take. Before actually starting to film, we halted the train where he was supposed to drop off. Every participant got off the engine and searched the area for potential dangers. When all leaves and roots had been cleared in and around the water that he would spash into, we made a rehershal run without the fall. Again, the stunt chief and the director agreed, that is, that the stundman and I would have the saying from now on. I had to double my speed for the actual take, and the timing of the stuntman had to match perfectly. When filming it, the director and the stunt chief were sitting on the water tank behind the main camera. The stuntman wasn't allowed to drop before I signaled the appropriate speed. I told him, he should take care and jump far off the engine or it would be the last drop in his life. When we got near the point, the camera was rolling and the stundman stot his revolver. I knew that the speed was right, so I nodded to the director. He called "Peng!" and the stundman acted as to be hit and dropped off the engine while we backed up with full speed. When this scene was actually done good, nobody had any complaints.

One interessing thing in this reverse run: At the beginning of this backup turn, we were in an double curve. At the spot were the stuntman was to drop, the tracks are strait. At the end of the scene, wen can be ssen in the same double courve again. This is due to the cutting of the film.

Also interresting was the ice on the water. Due to freezing by night, there was a thin layer of ice on the water the stuntman was to drop into. When the take was done, we instantly returned to him. He klimbed out of the water right then, wet and cold, but uninhured. We had made it in just one take!

On the return trip to the depot, the sound crew made further recordings to get more sounds of the train. After arrival, we all relaxed and discussed the last filming days. Then they all took up their gear, so I took the engine to rest for the day. I gave back my costume and the gloves. It was another long day, but the filming was done successfully.

One of Mark Wolper's people told me, they will pay me for my acting. I agreed, not thinking on a lot of money. (I would have done it without it.) I spoke to James Read once again and said good-bye. He was the most friendly person you can imagine. I already had met him when we had done the railroad scenes for North and South part 1 (episode 1), but this time I really could get to know him. If you have an acting scene with somebody, it's a complete different thing. I was glad, to do that with him of all the actors of the project. He is a FABULOUS ACTOR.

About a month later, I received my contract papers with the mail. One contract for my acting, one for my actual work, and one as my admission to the television actors' union. That is because I had to be a member of that union before they were allowed to use my picture. Some months later, the local ABC station called and asked if I want to see my scene and that it will be in the series. They were just working on some of the filming work in Arkansas. For an interview, they gave me an exclusive preview of the scene.

When the series was aired, about everyone I know was watching. I am really proud about what became of it, even it feels somewhat unreal. Probably so, because I remember all the things that happened behind the camera. Now, nearly 15 years have gone, and I still get money transfers by Warner Brothers and Wolper Productions, whenever the series is aired somewhere in the world. They always pay well, I have to say. But the most valuable are the memories, that I will keep.

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Report By A Participant In The Battle Scene Of Churubusco In Episode 2

The Mexican War, Patrick Swayze, and boiled crayfish

Beginning with 1983 and only for a few years, some of our brave people have been taken to unchartered territory when they were re-staging the Mexican War of 1846-47. We didn't fight against real Mexicans, and not on the PC, but we made living history at places as Fort Scott, KS, Arrow Rock and Fort Osage (Sibley, MO9. In May of 1985, some of us drove to Natches, MS and took part in filming work there. This is the report.

During the winter, informations came in that there will me made scenes for the tv movie North and South near Natchez in Mai of 1985.They were looking for re-enactors for five days on the Battle of Churubusco in the Mexican War. I think, thy offered 50 dollar a day for the infantry, or some more if you bring cannons. (North and South is based on John James' bestseller on two men, one from the North and one from the South, getting friends at West Point, fighting in Mexico, and ending up as enemies in the Civil War. The greater part of the novel is a soap on pain, suffer and lust of the family members, either jumping from one bed to the next or execute diversive revenges, or both.)

It took a week off from my job and planned to go there with John Maki in my Mitsubishi. Gregg Higginbotham wasn't free, so we lended his equipment to a marine friend of Frank Kortley. At the last minute, Charlie Paulter asked for a ride, so John and I had to make room for him. My Mitsubishi ohly has seats for two at the front because of the gear stick at the center on the floor. We put some covers on the cot in the back and pushed our material to one side. We had some of John Maki's wooden boxes with us storing all the Material and the tents, and we had a cooler with snacks and drinks. The load area was covered with a hood of aluminium that had two windows for ventilation. We alternated as to who was to lay there in the back.

Our route was similar to that we took to Champoin's Hill some years ago. I think we started on Saturday morning and reached Vicksburg 12 hours after that. It was our first visit to Vicksburg for 5 years, and of course we made a round trip. We met Skip Merriman and Jerry Vest there, so we planned to go on to Natchez together. One night, wen spent in a cheep motel, and one time we had an authentic Cajon breakfast. I had a plate of fried frog legs, and i thing someone else had a bowl of seaweed. We also stopped at a street fish market and Jerry Vest bought a pound of builed crayfish. They offered some to me, but first I didn't want to eath those monsters. I watched Jerry and John swallowing them without consequences, so I took a bite. Only the tail of them was edible. They were boiled and then put into some red pepper sauce. My lips and tongue felt like I had tongue-kissed some red-hot iron, but somehow I liked those spicy things.

In short: We finally arrived at the filming location, an offside strip of land near Natchez. We applied ourselves, found a camping spot and raised our triangle tents. Right then, Frank Kortley and his friend Mike Neitze came over. Among lots of new faces, we spottet the Illinois volunteers of Joe Covias, the Iowa troops of Kyle McGonigle and the Holmes Brigade of Ken McElhaney who had teamed up with Dan Lawrence's artillery from Texas. All the regular U.S. units were to camp together, so we camped down alongside of Kyle's Iowa. Maki hat all the boxes in his tent, so Charlie Pautler had to share tent with me. I believe, we spent about five days and four nights on this spot, and during that time I got to know Charlie. We played the Mexican War for about a year now, but besides crawling through the sand beside him I only new on him that he was the son of Don Pautler, the commander of the Confederade Missouri Brigade.

After a long day having been grilled at the location, we pulled our tired bodies half a mile back to the tents, ate something, and who wasn't too tired sat around and told stories. Charlie and I pictured to make a collection of anatomically correct Civil War paper figures, starting with Jefferson Davis. We also wanted to set up a lengthy Civil War story on soldiers sitting around with storage boxes when Yankees suddenly showed up.

Hollywood provided outdoor showers, but Charlie, Maki and I decided not to use it. Even when we got more sweaty over the days and bugs started to live in our orifices, we declined just to see who can stand it the longest. On day four, Charlie went to town to take a bath in a hotel.

One evening, the film crew provided steakes and beer from a pickup truck driving through the camp. The actors gathered like a swarm of mosquitos. Maki suggested to aquire as much beer and steaks as possible, even in our underwear if need be. We looked like obese women at the summer sale tables. Kyle McGonigle and his Iowa men looked over. They didn't want to get trampled down and relied upon us leaving some for them - we were to be gentlemen! HA! When the dust settled, there wasn't enough left to feed a fly. Kyle and his boys trotted back to the camp and took over their baggy soups. During this, we guys from Missoury endeavered on stakes and beer until the sauce dropped from our chins.

One evening, the Illinois boys suggested they were heading for Natchez where they had a brothel there. Nellie's seemed to be a legal, state run establishment pulling as many tourists as horny bastards. With the usual advertising stuff, Nellie also sold t-shirts. A dozen huddled in a pickup with the trunk high enough for standing on it. After almost getting lost, we found the old ranch-style house with lots of tall girls in skimpy clothes running around. Some of the boys wanted to have their fun, but we just sat in the hall, where one old colored woman served as director. She advanced Maki to seduce him, but we told her that we only came for the t-shirts. To be honest, this place was too dirty for tourists, and the t-shirts had to be washed first also.

Now, it's time to tell about the location and our experiences there. Well, the place was some half mile uphill from the camp ground. In the morning, we marched as a battalion for breakfast which Hollywood provided in a big circus tent. This could have made Henry VIII. jealous. We got cold and warm flakes, fresh fruits, donuts, muffins, juices of all kinds, eggs, bacon raw and grilled, sausage and waffles, all on the buffet. As the military had done for centuries, Hollywood also fills the bellies. The services rises to to level when it was to supply the people on set. Around noon we made a break for supper. First was the crew because they had to return quickly to arrange the material and equipment for the next take. They put up for us all that can be killed, coocked, baked and / or fried. Only in the evening, they didn't provide for us so some of us rode ot Natchez oder were cooking ther brought-in rations.

"For the first supper time, the crew arrived shortly before," Ken McElhaney remembers. "They only used the correct plastic utensils and put just the proper amount to the proper spots on the styropor pieces as Maki and I took our places in the buffet queue. John was dirty and he took whatever he could use, put mountains on his place and throwed oitatie salad on his pudding. Wenn some pudding dropped down, he used his dirty hand and simply put it back onto the plate. A film guy stood newar to me with open mout and whispering "Oh my god…" I had no time to appoligize on John's behavior for I was also throwing things onto my plate.

When arriving at the filming locations, we found ourselves amidst a small village of single-story clay flats. Hollywood had only set up the walls visible to the cameras. There were no back and side walls, just some poles and sacks of sand for stabilization. The ground was very dry with no or little growth, so Hollywood placed some small trees and bushes in the village and sprayed green color to imitate grass.

Some hundred yards from the village, a stone bridge was built over a river with "bushes and trees" growing on its banks as well. On the other side of the bridge and some further hundreds of yards away was a ditch line about where the artillery guns were lined up wheel to wheel. Here, the Mexican army was to stand in the battle sequence. Hollywood believed that the viewers will get the impression of a Mexican village that happened to be in the center of the great fighting. Broken gun pieces, lost equipment parts, burst sacks of sand and a fallen tree were arranged as well to promote the impression of a battlefield. More that a dozen ground charges were put to hidden places - some even into the water - loaded with black powder, dirt and cork pieces - and burried one hand deep into the the ground. The water charges were different, they should throw up water as high as 50 yards.

The orders to the actors, what to do, was essentially "run around like headless hens," during the loads exploding to our feet. We didn't fire a single shot along the whole take. Our uniforms and faces were made up with make-up when we first arrived (we should appear ready for the fight). When the director called "Action!", we either stumbled around like in panic or lying around flat to the ground as "dead soldiers", being peppered by thrown earth and hot particles of cork from close explosions. In the meantime, the main actors were to do their dialogues in this hellish confusion.

Patrick Swayze (before he did Dirty Dancing) and James Read were the West Point friends from the South respectively North. In their roles als Lieutenants Main and Hazard, according the script they were to call to their men for encouratgement, shoot with their pistols, and performe some acronatic stunts by jump over obstracles and fight with Mexicans. It was a combination of Erol Flynn and Monty Python. At one point, the friends were confronted by an old enemy, a devilish man, whom they got expelled from West Point. He was to be captain in the army by political influence, and now he orderd Lieutenants Main and Hazard to go into a suicide mission with their men. "...

"...scout forward and bring me a report of enemy strength at the bridge... Move, or I'll shoot you where you stand... for disobeying a direct order... from a superior officer!" I remember this part especially, because the actor said those lines from a ladder 6 feet tall since the horse he had arrived on was too nervous to be controlled. The re-enactors were about 30 yards off and had to be shot several times until they all had made their lines without errors.

My companion McElhaney had another perspective on the scene: "If I remember correctly, the second grade Frank Sinatra-wannabe neede 36 tries until the text "I heard that you two were here..." was done right. I heard the script girl announce every take loundly, and that went up to 36."

The old baldy, the leader of the 7th Illinois cavalry whose name just slipps my mind (Karl Luthin) told me that this horse the actor sat on, was 16 years old and battle-trained for more than 10 years. Anyhow, baldy scoldet the actor when he held his pistol right next to the horses' head instead of above it. The horse will see the pistol and try to step aside, the actor will pull the other way, and the director will shout, "Stop!"

Between the takes, tha actors relaxed on folding chairs in the shades, read their lines, tried stunts or played "hacky sack" with some crew members (to kick around a sack of beans only with the side of the feet).

Ken McElhaney remembers, that "Pat Swayze wanted to take a leak before a take, but the director hold him to keep it because he didn't want him to walk all the way to the trailer and back. Pat made the most cool move I ever had seen on him, he took three steps up to the trees and simply let it spray."

In those breaks, the crew members splashed a water mixture at the faces of the actors (we called it artificial sweat), other people were sent for drinks. I noticed one of these beach boys with his sun glasses whispering into his walkie-talkie for someone to bring up a diet Sprite for Mister Swayze. We called them - freely on Mel Brooks' movie History of the World Part I - "piss boys". Thanks to James Read, another piss boy a whole box of Twinkies for the actors. Who the hell is eating a Twinkie at 100 degrees under the sun? We do! It just took one bite into that sugar matress, and we had to drink gallons of water to be able to open our mouths again.

The last scene is with blasting of the bridge, where Patrick Swayze was caught in the blaze. We were told that the crew would pack up and get ready to move on after that. We were disappointed because we originally hoped that they would be filming us fighting, not just at running around like scared little girls. Then the final scene was called. We went there to receive our instructions. During waiting there, actress Lesley-Anne Down came along like a cat. She looked a little abstracted and dazed (maybe by the heat), but she really smelled good. And she was a wonderful view. It appears that she playes the lover Patrick Swayze's longs for. After some little flirtations, she was brought back to her trailer and we were shure that some Hollywood "piss boy" took care of here needs over there.

We ware standing in formation for more than half an hour, and slowly the daylight began to fade. Finally we were called up. The Hollywood cameras were equipped with light sensitive films and the director motioned us to go into action. With a yell, we formed the battle line, pointed to the imagniary enemies with our bayonetts, and stepped off. Then a halt, we fired a volley, and stepped on again, until we were out of the camera focus.

This way, the filming work endet. We packed up the same night, drove off and spent the night in a motel of the vincinity. First thing we all did was to order several big glasses of ice water in a sitting restaurant. Reality had us back the next day, we made our way home and returned to the usual boring 8 hour day.

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