Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Good Old Boys Pride and Passion




At the Bell Reunion this past weekend I heard an unusual story, which reminded me of the movie THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION.  

The movie was directed by Stanley Kramer in 1957 and starred Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and Sophia Loren.  It was back in a time when the world was at war with itself. ... when is it isn't?  The whole story seemed to be about transporting a giant cannon through Spain.  And you toss in France and England who love to get their hands on the giant canon, the Weapon of Mass Destruction, and good looking Italian woman and you have the makings of a good movie.  I don't remember much about the movie but remember I liked the part where the cannon broke lose to the pull of gravity while trying to pull it up a steep mountain and it going down the side at super speed.  And oh yes, I also enjoyed watching Sophia Loren bath in a river one night.  The water was almost transparent, but not quiet.

In the movie Frank Sinatra was a  leader of the Spanish guerrilla forces. 

OK, that is what the movie was about.  Now, about the story I heard:   Back in the 1950s, a few good old Marietta boys stole a cannon out of a historical park.  They did it for the fun of it, but once they had it they didn't know what to do with it.  They hid it behind a service station on Roswell Street.  I remember the station, it had a large high bank behind it, not like most stations that you could see  all around it from the street.

Finally the owner of the station told them he didn't want that behind his station, for them to get rid of it.  If I heard correctly, they returned it.


I was thinking the guerrilla is another word for rebel.  Probably these good old boys would be considered rebels, or guerrillas.   And they had a cannon to deal with.  Doesn't that remind you of Frank Sinatra and the movie THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION?    Although I doubt if they wore makeup like the below movie poster.




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