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April 21, 2023
Once Upon a Time in Washington DC I was a Movie Star...
Well, Movie Star might be a bit of stretch - but I actually did make it into a movie back in the day.
The name of the movie was PRIME RISK - and while it didn't break any box office records at the time, it has become a bit of a cult favorite.
This was back in 1984 - and one evening that summer I decided to join a group of my co-workers from VM Software for a late happy hour at a bar in NE Washington, DC.
After all these years I cannot recall the name of the bar - but I do remember that it was located across the street from the National Zoo.
When we left the bar just before midnight , we passed by the Woodley Park-Zoo subway station where we noticed that a film crew had set up bright lights to shoot scenes for a movie.
The specific scene they were setting up for was to take place on the escalators leading down to the Metro Station and when a friend and I asked if they needed any "extras" - they said "Why yes, we do. Would you like to be in the movie?".
It was the 80's, we were in our 20's - and visions of Miami Vice were dancing in our heads - so we said "Sure, where do we sign up?".
They pointed us to a table where we signed some paperwork and then we were escorted into the subway station and given a spot on the left escalator which was the one that was going up.
To make sure that we were in the same spot for the multiple takes that the director was sure to order, they put a piece of masking tape with our names on the side of the escalator out of the camera view..
For the first thirty minutes it was pretty cool as we watched them set up and work with the stunt doubles to set the scene.
The idea was that the stars of the movie - Lee Montgomery and Toni Hudson - were going down the escalator when they suddenly spotted the chief Bad Guy - played by Keenan Wynn.
To avoid the Bad Guy and his henchmen, the stars jumped off of the down escalator and rolled across the divider to get to the the up escalator in order to escape.
Seemed pretty simple when we got there - but then we learned that there would be a seemingly endless number of takes to make sure they got everything right.
After about an hour of riding up and then returning to the same spot on the escalator - while the escalator was started and stopped multiple times - we began to realize that this might be a long night if we stayed to the end.
That's when we asked if we could take a bathroom break and we were directed to the portable facilities at the top of the escalator.
After a quick stop at the facilities we decided our movie career was over and we headed home hoping that they would not miss us and still be able to use the film they had shot with us standing on the escalator.
While the movie did appear on HBO for about five minutes, I was never able to find a copy where I could determine for sure whether I actually made it into the final cut.
Well, today I found a copy of the movie streaming for free from some site in Russia and I was able to capture a few screen shots where I actually do appear in the movie.
Can you spot me in these screen shots?
