Wednesday, October 13, 1993
by KEN BECK
Staff Writer
Tim Ormond has a dream - to become Nashville's No. 1 filmmaker.
His quest comes naturally. During the 1960s, his late father, Ron and his mother, June earned the nichname "Nashville's first family of film."
The Ormonds were masters of the exploitation movie, and from Music City they churned out such drive-in potboilers as White Lightnin' Road, Forty Acre Feud and Girl From Tobacco Row. The flicks featured the acting and singing talents of country music's top starts of the era.
Ferlin Husky, Del Reeves, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lynn, Ray Price, Bill Anderson, Eddie Hill, Minnie Pearl, Ralph Emery, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck and Tex Ritter can all be found in vintage '60s form in Ormond Films.
And now Tim believe it's his turn. He's hooking up with country music stars of the '90s as he tries to return the Ormond name to the silver screen.
"Right now I have two pictures on the drawing boards," said Tim. "One is a country music film, One More Bridge To Cross, which is in pre-production, and the other is The Lash LaRue Story."
The Ormond legacy is an incredible concoction that mixes vaudeville moxie with low-budget schlock, covering everything from Westerns and hillbilly flicks to sex-gore. shockers and religious films.
It all goes back 75 years, when June Carr Ormond, now 81, began her career in show business at the age of 7 with her parents.
"My father was the top banana in burlesque," said June, an all-round entertainer, who in her heyday could have passed for Gracie Allen. "Mother was an ingenue, who worked with comedians. I've worked with Bob Hope, Dick Powell, Milton Berle, Edgar Bergen. I opened at Palladium in London and danced with Prince Edward."
June left the stage in the 1940s after her marriage to impresario Ron Ormond. The show-biz entrepreneurs settled in Hollywood where they helped produce 28 pictures, 12 of them Lash LaRue "B" Westerns. LaRue, who faintly resembled Humphrey Bogart, always dressed in black and was famous for his proficiency with a bullwhip.
"Ron wrote and produced the pictures. He used to say, 'I am the eye of the camera.' He had good ideas but was great on titles," June said of her husband, who died in 1981.
June also booked personal appearance for stars at movie houses. Among her clients were LaRue, Fuzzy St. John, Sunset Carson and the Three Stooges. The Ormonds also made the friendship of Bela ("Dracula") Lugosi, who became Tim's godfather.
After the Westerns ran their course, the Ormonds turned to exploitation in the mid-1950s with Mesa of Lost Women, Untamed Mistress and Please Don't Touch Me. In the mid-1960s they came east to Nashville and whipped out White Lightnin' Road. The movie was actually shot in Georgia, but the film was cut and edited in Nashville at Trafco, which occupied the site of the present-day Jim Owens Productions.
"We shot Forty Acre Feud at Bradley's Barn in Wilson County," recalled June. "Agent Huey Long booked Country," recalled June.
"Agent Huey Long booked the stars, while Ron directed. We knew practically all the country stars of the 60s. Ralph Emery was a good friend of Ron's. He was in Girl From Tobacco Road with Tex Ritter.
"Dolly Parton's agent called us, and she auditioned for a part in Forty Acre Fued, but Ron said 'there's only one thing wrong - she talks very country.'"
Because of her accent, Dolly didn't get the part and had to cool her heels until 1980 when she made her film debut in Nine to Five.
During the 1970s, the Ormond family turned to religious exploitation films, and it was there that Tim learned the ropes from his father.
"They were exploitative films. My ad and Roger Corman (the low budget movie master of Hollywood) were acquaintances, and they were aiming for the same markets.
"They weren't making Jurassic Park for a worldwide audience. They were making films for the Bible belt, for the Saturday night drive-in market," said Tim.
"The nickname 'first family of film in Nashville' came back in the days of when we did Forty Acre Feud. It was just a name that was given and it kind of stuck."
But that was then. How close is is Tim to putting the Ormond name back on the screen alongside country music start and Nashville locales?
Within a guitar string, he says.
Verbally committed to Tim's One More Bridge To Cross project are Delbert McClinton, Mark Collie and MTV'S Jon Brennan. Also, songwriter Jerry Foster is signed in the lead role as Johnny Blakwell, a country music has-been and alcoholic who gets one more shot at the big time.
Nashville tunesmith-turned-actor Foster can't wait to get started in his first starring role
"I'm really excited about One More Bridge To Cross because it's not so much about the music business as about family relationships," said Foster. "It's a movie that the whole family can se, but it's not the Nashville that Hollywood would show."
Foster and Bill Rice are ASCAP's most honored songwriting team with 70 awards. As an actor, Foster has appeared in W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, Life after Life, Framed and Proudheart.
"I think Tim is rally qualified to do his job." Foster said.
"I think they have pulled together a good team with both the production and the writing. There's a good chemistry between Bergen and I, and we've got to bring it to the screen. He's pretty much a natural.
"There are about 25 speaking roles in this movie, and they're gonna cast most of this in Nashville. And the Pirates of the Mississippi are doing the background music."
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Westerns are still on Tim's mind.
"My dream project is King of the Bullwhip or Whatever Happened to Lash LaRue. A lot happened in Lash's life which makes for an interesting story. I'll have a young lead playing Lash. That will shot next spring, probably around Dickson, Tenn.
"I grew up with a wide range of experiences. My background has been in the trenches. I cut me teeth on low-budget films. My father taught me to be an opportunist, to plan with diligence but to be open for opportunity.
"You can't go into something not knowing what you're planning to do, but you can't be so rigid that you're not open to changes."