Northern News: Hollywood Blows Into La Sal

This time of year, the wind blows in fiercely one day and blows on the next. That has certainly been the case this Spring.
Last week, “Hollywood” did much the same in our village.
They blew in one day and after a furious round of activity, were just as quickly gone.
It all started one day with a notice at La Sal Central aka the Store and Post Office stating that Ana’s La Sal Store would be closed for business on May 18th.
Hmm, that’s interesting, Ana and Hal usually have employees who can cover the running of the store when they have to be away.
A few days later I investigated and found the reason behind the closure. Okay, I ran into Ana at the PO and got the whole skinny.
A few days earlier I had received a call from a representative of a film production group requesting use of the Community Center for a day or two.
They would be filming in the area for one day and needed bathrooms and an eating area for 200 crew and cast. My conversation with Ana brought the two events into one action. You see, the advanced lead on the project had already contacted some area folks prior to contacting me.
First, much of the staging would be set up on Redd Agri’s property (Charles Redd owner and proprietor) in La Sal proper.
Also, some of the scenes would be filmed inside the soon to be famous La Sal Store! In fact, Ana offered her home as a respite from the work of filming to some of those involved. I don’t feel that I’m exaggerating when I say she has about the cleanest home in town.
If that wasn’t enough, Ana and Hal were filmed as extras inside of the store. From what I gathered from my deep investigative snooping (or maybe just the rumor mill from those who may or may not have been on scene) was that Hal was sipping a cup of coffee at the counter, which is kinda funny as most of us suspect he is a non-coffee drinker. Ah, the movies.
A full catering facility was set up under tents on the east side of Community Center. If you wandered by at just the right time, you could be invited to “fill your plate”. Hey, this is not my first experience with a filming production.
I spent 16 years in my career with the Feds and part of my duties were permitting and monitoring filming projects. Caterers usually have great food, whether film or fire camps.
Some folks hanging around watching the activity were surprised at how much just standing around takes place.
Yep, never aspired to being further involved in filming projects after the day I was stuck in the middle of the Moki Dugway ALL DAY with nothing to do but “monitor” the filming project and not being able to escape.
As for the end product, again my deep investigative instinct unearthed that too. I may or may not have been standing around with one of those people seemingly not doing anything while I waited for a scene to finish filming so I could drive home with my dinner.
According to my secret source, the film is a made for Showtime movie title “Three Sisters”. This may or may not be a big secret or even accurate.
If you find me toes up from a hit job, you know I let the cat out of the bag when I should not have. Ah, the hazards of being an Ace (and very lazy) reporter.
Other local resources were hired to set up and clean up the Community Center. Local fire folks sold raffle tickets for the rifle to be given away the next Saturday. Had they known, the filmers indicated they would have made a donation to our local fire folks.
I wonder what big Hollywood types think of a red necked activity involving shooting at targets to blow up dynamite?!
Welcome to the real wild west. By the way, a local won the drawing so the gun is not going out of town.
Saturday afternoon I told my spouse “I think I just heard a gunshot!” He looked at me as he often does with pity for his wife’s poor wandering mind. “It’s dynamite shoot day!” Oh, yes, I’d forgotten. Those folks were very successful in their fundraising that day and the ZABOOMING had been going on all day. Open your ears reporter!
FYI, our closet library is still open even during the hunt for a new librarian. No one is sure how that process is going as County HR is in charge of that.
County library management assures us that keeping our local library open is a priority. We are trying to set a date for our next book club meeting. That read this month is “The Rent Collector”. For me, worth a second read.
Our Hollywood days are now over. But, we did have one day of excitement.

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