Tattnall journal. (Reidsville, Ga.) 18??-2016, September 26, 1974, Image 1

Tattnall journal., September 26, 1974, Image 1

About Tattnall journal. (Reidsville, Ga.) 18??-2016 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1974)

Page of 14

Prev Issue

Text PDF JP2 (2.4 MB) Clip/Print Image

Page of 14

Prev Issue

Return to Top

Newspaper Page TextI? YOU DIDN'T SIE IT IN THE JOURNAL IT PROBABLY DIDN'T HAPPEN! VOLUMN 96 — OFFICIAL ORGAN Tales of a Georgia Prison By 'The Godfather's' Producer By Donia Mills Star-News Staff Writer Albert Ruddy, the man whose claim to fame is that he produced "The Godfather," came to town yesterday to rave over his latest venture, "The Longest Yard," which opens Sept. 27 at area thea ters. Described variously by its producer as "Alice in Wonderland in prison," as a parable of "games manship" and as an "outrageous comedy," "The Longest Yard" stars Burt Reynolds as a former football star who is sentenced to a maximum-security prison for steal ing his rich girl friend's car, and Eddie Albert as the psychotic ward en who sets up a Guards vs. In mates football contest just for the fun of watching the rag-tag team of prisoners get stomped. RUDDY SAYS the story is based on the life of a "golden boy" foot ball player he once knew who married an heiress, was injured, and ended up driving a truck after the lady threw him out. The director is Robert ("Dirty Dozen") Aldrich, and Ruddy figures that the men in the audience are going to love all the pro football players who have bit parts (Ray Nitschke, Joe Kapp EDITOR'S NOTE — The above article was printed in the Washington Star-News, Washington, D. C., Tuesday, September 17, 1974. Some of Ruddy's remarks are so absurd that we will not even reply to them. But when he says that when you checked into the motel you were given a can of Raid, he was not telling the truth. The truth is that the can of Raid was given to them after they had been there for several days, in order get rid of the ticks, bugs, lice, fleas, etc., that they had on them and which they brought into the motel. And if you had met Ruddy and many of the other "officials" of the film com pany you could readily understand. As to Truck Taxes Send $43,058 To Tattnall County For Streets & Roads Figures recently released by the state show Tattnall County and Its municipali ties received a combined to tal of $151,082 in state grants for capital Improvements, pri marily streets and roads dur ing fiscal 1973-74. According to Trux Magazine, state high way use taxes on trucks sup plied approximately $43,058 of the total. Each year, from Its motor fuel tax revenues, Georgia apportions approximately $11.9 million to each of the state's 159 counties. A simi lar amount Is granted to "eli gible and qualified" munici palities. The truck portion Is com puted by applying the per centage of total motor fuel taxes paid In Georgia by trucks against each alloca tion. Although trucks comprise only 18.5 percent of the pri vately owned motor vehicles In Georgia, they pay 28.5 per cent of all state highway use' taxes, of $74.8 million. The magazine noted that while a< license for an automobile can 1 cost as little as $3, a truck ] license can run more than< S7OO. In fact, the magazine ] says, the user taxes paid to 1 operate a single tractor-trail- t er unit In Georgia are equali to the taxes paid to operatei 40 automobiles. I The amount granted dl- 1 rectly to the county was $104,-' 698, of which trucks paid $23,- - 839. Grants to Individual mu- ( nlclpalltles within the county ( and the portion paid by trucks a (In parentheses) were: I Tattnall jfoumM and Pervis Atkins) and that the ladies are going to tag along to see Reynolds in action. "Let's face it — he's today's Clark Gable. At least today's Clark Gable! Here's a man who has been in 350 TV shows and 22 movies in the last 15 years — the quintessen tial pro in the business. I mean, he was scuffling around for roles back with the Tab Hunters and George Hamiltons, pardon the expression." The producer came armed with lots of stories, like the one about the time he rejected Reynolds for the part that Robert Redford eventually played in "Little Fauss and Big Halsy." And the one about how they were shooting the hospital scene from "The Godfather" at Bellevue without permission, and the pa tients started freaking out and throwing pillows out the windows, so Ruddy told director Francis Ford Coppola to "keep on shooting" while he held the hospital director captive in the latter's office:any thing to get that scene. BUT MOSTLY he told stories about the hardships the cast and crew of "The Longest Yard" suffer ed while living on location near the film site (the Georgia State Peniten tiary at Reidsville) in the tiny town of Glenville, which had one restau Bicycle Race Set For Sidewalk Hobby Show On Saturday Oct. 19 On Saturday, October 19, the Reidsville Jaycees and Reidsville Lions Club are co sponsoring the Sldewlak Hob by Show in Reidsville. One of the most exciting events of the day will be a bicycle race for all age groups. The bicycle race will begin at 5:00 P. M., and at the con clusion of the race, awards will be presented to the win ners. The race will be divid ed Into groups by age and sex. So don't worry, Daddy or Mama, son or daughter can't embarrass you with their blazing speed and you can prove to them that you have the fastest bicycle in town. The route and the rules of the race will be published In The Tattnall Journal at a la ter date. There will be refer ees at different points along the route to insure that all participants have a fair and equal chance to win the race. In order to win the "awards", there will be a 25 cents en trance fee to be paid in ad vance. To sign up contact Ann Thigpen at the Tattnall Elementary School, Jesse Bradley at Reidsville High School or Randy Nelson. Glennvllle, $22,840 ($6,509); Cobbtown, $3,853 ($1,098); Collins, $6,200 ($1,767); Man-< assas, $1,842 ($525); and Reidsville, $11,649 ($3,320). REIDSVILLE, TATTNALL COUNTY, GEORGIA 30453 rant, one gas station, and one motel. "Only motel I ever saw where they gave you a can of Raid at the desk when you checked in," Ruddy quipped with well-rehearsed jocu larity. Reidsville, he said, was like many old Southern prisons: so isolated and so far from any sizable towns (200 miles from Atlanta, 100 from Savannah) that even if you man aged to escape, there wasn't any where to escape to. "Reidsville's a heavy slammer, man. Two-thousand men with sen tences averaging 15 years to life. You figure, a guy's been there 40 years with no end in sight, he's got nothing to lose — he's nothing but a human time bomb." Ruddy said that the swinging, Los Angeles-based crew members kept pretty cool around Glenville for about the first six weeks of filming, but after that they started going berserk — tearing toilets out of the walls out of pure boredom, and so forth. "But when it really comes down to it, you can endure a lot for a few weeks at a time while you're filming a movie. You figure you're reaching for immortality —you can put up with anything." tearing toilets from the walls, it could possi bly have been that they didn't know what they were for. We have never seen a crum mier, nastier, dirtier, filthier bunch of peo ple anywhere, including Ruddy. When Rud dy was here he advised us that they had never been treated as cordially as the people here treated them in all of his experience. Just goes to show what we had to put up with during their stay in this section. There was one gentleman in the group, however — that was Eddie Albert — as for the rest, we are proud to report that they are gone and we hope, never to return to our lo cality. Good ridance to all of them. Rufus Chavies Died Here Last Thursday Morning Rufus Chavies, 64, died last Thursday morning at the ; Tattnall Memorial Hospital in Reidsville after a long illness. He was a native of Toombs County and a retired carpen , ter. Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Alex Odom of Reidsville; two sons, Gene Chavies of Reidsville and Ronald Chav les of the U. S. Army In Ger many. Funeral services were held Saturday at 3 p. m. at the Reidsville Baptist Church with Rev. Sterling Bargeron officiating. Interment was in the Reidsville City Cemetery. Active pallbearers were Ru fus Groover, Grady Parker, Roy Pelham, James Scott, Henry Beasley and Kenneth Powell. McCall - Trapnell Funeral Home was In charge. We often wonder whether the politicians believe one half the things they say. ** * * The things you don't know do hurt you; they're things you should try to learn. "TATTNALL'S LEADING NEWSPAPER SINCE 1879" LAMYRA DURRENCE LaMyra Durrence Joins Staff At Tattnall Hospital LaMyra Durrence, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Everette Dur rence of Glennville, has re cently joined the Laboratory Staff at Tattnall Memorial Hospital here, Miss Durrence has recently graduated from the Medical College of Georgia with a B.S. Degree in Medical Technolo gy. She graduated with hon ors from the Medical College. PRICE 10 CENTS Glennville Lan Shoots Wife; Then Himself Funeral services were held Saturday for Jerrel Lee Jos eph, 33, of Glennville, who, according to police, died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound after wounding his wife with the same weapon on a down town street in Glennville last Thursday afternoon. Glennville Police Chief J. R. Herrington said Joseph fired two shots at his wife, Janet, as she set in an auto on the main street in front of Strick land's Grocery about 5 p. m. Mrs. Joseph was wounded in the chest and shoulder with No. 1 buckshot. Joseph then turned the 16-gauge weapon on himself and was shot just below the heart with No. 1 buckshot, police said. Several persons witnessed the shooting, Chief Herring ton said. The chief said the Josephs had been having do-' mestic problems.• Joseph, who was a carpen ter, and his wife were carried ] to the Tattnall County Hos pital in Reidsville where he, died at 9 p. m., Thursday. Mrs. ] Joseph was transferred to a Savannah hospital where she ( was reported in fair condition. ] Surviving Joseph, in addi- t tion to his wife, are two dau ghters, Melanie and Holly ( Joseph, both of Glennville; ] his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lee f Joseph of Glennville; two sisters, Mrs. Gretha J. Yeo- , mans of Glennville and Mrs. Margie Grooms of Savannah; a brother, Darwin Joseph of , Glennville. t Funeral services were held t Saturday at 3 p. m. at Stoney 1: Hill Baptist Church conduct- I ed by Rev. Marcus Rushing and Rev. Hugh Ellington. Bu rial was in the church ceme tery. Pallbearers were Curtis De- Loach, David Yeomans, Mar quette Durrence, Dale Yeo mans, Thomas Moore, and ( Donald Yeomans. ( Rimes Mortuary of Glenn- 1 ville was in charge. _ ^xctw.q, .^3Es£^' T ''\ ;^' Tuesday morning at approximately 8:30 o'clock, 14 boxcars belonging to Seaboard Coastline, derailed near Collins, with no in juries reported. In talking with a Seaboard official at the scene, but who would not give out any infor mation as to the speculation causing the de railment or as to the estimated damage, did tell a Tattnall Journal reported that it was the third or fourth car that was the first to THUR! Suspects Apprehended Local Robberies Monday Two Negro males, Joe Les ter Miller and Victor Nall, and two Negro juveniles were ap prehended September 16 for the robbery of Don's Discount Drugs here. The suspects were apprehended by Jim Waters, son of Sheriff and Mrs. Romle Waters, and Wilbur Berry of the Reidsville Police Depart ment. (Berry was off-duty at the time and was riding with Waters at the time of the robbery). Waters and Berry saw the suspects In the building and called Deputy Sheriff Blynn Smith, who made the arrests. Deputy Smith stated that he found several watches on the back steps of the drug store and about $50.00 In cash missing. Miller also confessed to an earlier robbery of the same business on August 24. At that time Miller had taken In excess of SIOO.OO In merchan dise from the store. He sald he had spent $175.00 taken from the August 24 robbery. Miller and Nall were tried in court and sentenced to pri son. Miller received 10 years (5 years on each count) and Nall received 5 years. The two juveniles were taken to the Juvenile Detention Center in Waycross for an Indefinite period of time. Non-essentials take up' too much time in life but' why be different from those; about you? 1 Don't expect everyone to' agree with you; variety of opinion is what makes the world interesting. Train Derails Near Collins I PTEMBER 26, 1974 Youth Program For School Year Begins The new manpower pro gram labeled Youth Work Experience has begun the In- School operation this month in Tattnall County. There are 22 high school students enrolled in the training pro gram here. Altamaha Area Community Action Agency is responsible for operation of the program which is taking the place of the former Neighborhood Youth Corps program. "Bas ically the Intent of the Youth Work Experience program Is the same as the NYC pro gram", Glenn Williams, di rector, explained. "Some changes In staffing, records and payment to the students are evident," he said. Payroll is now done In the State Labor Dept, on comput ers, staff from AACAA will continue to distribute the checks through the local cen ter, on a weekly schedule. Students are placed In non profit work-sites within the community In jobs such as clerical and office work, nur ses or teachers aides, library assistants, maintenance work, horticulture, forestry, state highway construction, with city or county government and recreation departments. The work hours are coordi nated with the school sched ule allowing the student to continue his or her education jump the track, causing 13 others loaded with pulpwood, saw dust and wood chips to derail, leaving debris and several hundred feet of track ripped out of the ground and that the engine and its remaining two or three cars which were still attached went on to Savannah. The Seaboard official said that an inves tigation would be conducted to determine the cause of the derailment on the straight away. REIDSVILLE ... THE HOME OF THE GEORGIA STATE PRISON NUMBER 39 and work eight hours a week. They earn minimum wages. The county was assigned the 22 work-slots based on percentages from State Man power. The State Manpower councillng a "fair-share fac tor formula" based on em ployment, unemployment and poverty in relationship to ov erall county population arriv ed at the percentage for the counties. From this then the number of students per coun ty was assigned. "Students are selected based on priority needs and available work sites," Williams said. Mrs. Rubye Smith is the Counselor for this County and can be contacted by calling the Community Action Center in Reidsville at 557-4556. He trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch as well as he that goes over to the enemy. -Edmund Burke. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. -Thomas Jefferson. Ve ought to use the best means we can to be well informed of our duty. -Thomas Reed.