Historic sites for Civil War film

Press, 26 July 1983, Page 19

Historic sites for Civil War film

Belle Grove historic site in a residential area of Fort Smith, Arkansas, provided many of the stately homes in “The Blue and the Grey,” part two of which will be screened on One tonight The area has been undergoing renovation for several years, restoring the houses to their former Civil War splendour. Modem street lights have been replaced by period lamps and asphalt was torn from the streets, revealing the original bricks laid down in 1849. Several kilometres from Fort Smith is Van Buren, a small town of about 12,000, which has not changed much since it played an important role in the Civil War.

But despite its old look, the town required even more dressing for the role it

played in “The Blue and the Grey.” False fronts and signs appropriate to the period were placed on the buildings needing them. Electric wires were buried and old street lamps replaced electric lights. The changes were liked so much that the wires remained buried and the street lamps stayed where they were after the film company left. Hundreds of townspeople were used as extras in the film, dressed in Civil War finery. The upper half of the street represented Gettysburg; the lower stood for Vicksburg during its long siege.

Production began in Arkansas on September 15, 1981, and ended on December 15 for a total of 77 days of filming, three days under

the scheduled 80. In an area noted for 43 inches of annual rainfall, the company was blessed with perfect weather except for four days of rain which only slightly hindered production.

California, Kentucky and Arkansas were scouted by location crews before an area in Northwest Arkansas was selected. Arkansas was chosen because it had everything the production needed — swamps for the Battle of the Wilderness, caves just across the border in Oklahoma which served as the caves of Vicksburg, historic homes and government buildings representative of the period, open country which has not changed in 200 years, and actual battlefields on which the war was fought.