pull up a chair...this might take a few moments...(excuse me if I've told this before)
...let's go back to 1974-75...one of the hottest actors of the day in his prime was Robert Redford (think Way We Were RR)...my parent's had just purchased their dream home on a hill...but it needed extensive renovations (think the movie Money Pit)...my mother was in real estate at the time...and her firm was often used for movie locations...(Hair, Meet the In laws, etc). They chose our house for the film version of a book called Six Days of the Condor...movie was called Three Days of The Condor starring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow...directed by Sidney Pollack.
...My sister and I had to pinky swear not to let a soul know about the project...RR had just finished The Way We Were...not yet done Great Gatsby...
...to be continued...
chapter 1: the area I come from on the North Shore of Long Island is horse coutry. Infact the owner of Secritariat live very near us. Our house sits on the 2nd highest point of LI...and was the scene of the Battle of Wolver Hollow with G Washington. Lots of woods and great place for an acotr who is playing a stressful job to unwind. I did not have much contact with RR but my mother was on the set every day from the moment the crew got in...and my sister and I would come over with my dad to pick her up (we were still living in one house while my parents renovated the new)...if you watch the climax of the movie...you will se my living room...we even kept the scratch in the wooden panelling fromone of thescenes where RR is trying to get info from the MOLE or Bad Guy...I did get to know Max VonSydow very well you might remember him from The Exorcists, or The Greatest Story Ever Told...very nice man from Sweden. Anyway...back to the close encounter...
Chapter 2...in between takes...and during down times RR would go for runs along the briddle paths that run behind all our houses...very early in the morning...and stop and pet the variety or horses grazzing. All I could think was the look on some poor house wife's face...as she looked out the back window and saw some blonde haired jogger in gray sweets. Little did she know WHO it was!!!
Chapter 3...My encounter with Mr R
...I was 12/13 with a mouth full of teeth that was about to have braces for the next 6 years. We all had to make sure no photos of any kind were taken...very hush, hush. Finally on the finale week of shooting when everything was about done...my mother asked for a family photo. MVS was great he let us snap away...he and my dad are about the same hight (6-5) and was just supper about everything...(I wished then I could haveasked him about playing Jesus...but I was not that aware at that age). At the point of the movie...RR's character had been on the run for 3-6 days...and was "scruffy looking" in denim shirt, jeans and stubble...he had this very intense look on him (he was in character). As he was coming down the stairs my mother (GOD rest her soul) said as only she could, "Barbra Streisand gets you clean shaven and in an officer's uniform...and I get you in jeans and grubby looking" with that RR laughed a deep life giving laugh threw his head back...((my mother got the best photo of him))...and my little girl heart lept for joy.
Great story Barbie! What an experience.
That is a wonderful story Barbie... I watched part of "Three Days" just a few weeks ago, but fell asleep before they got so far as a house that could have been in Long Island. I loved Robert Redford when I was young. Butch Cassidy, The Sting, The Way We Were, All the President's Men, were all favorite movies.
