In his forthcoming book, Sometimes a Great Movie: Paul Newman, Ken Kesey and the Filming of the Great Oregon Novel, Oregon Coast author/publisher Matt Love blends reportage, memoir, oral history and film criticism, along with 125 photographs from the filming of Sometimes a Great Notion. In this essay, Love tells us about two tavern scenes that inspired the book. Find out how to help with its publication at the end of the essay—and learn about a contest, too!
Not long after Ken Kesey died in 2001, I staged a private wake for my literary hero by drinking beer in the Bayhaven, an ancient tavern on Newport’s Bayfront. There, I noticed a framed poster of promotional stills from Sometimes a Great Notion the movie. The cinematic adaption of Kesey’s novel was filmed in Lincoln County on the Central Oregon Coast in the summer of 1970 and included scenes shot in the Bayhaven, which stood in for The Snag saloon from the novel.
I asked the bartender and a few other patrons if they had seen the movie. They all had and uniformly agreed that the most memorable scene was when one of the characters drowns under a log in an estuary as the tide rises. I also asked if any had read the novel, which unfolds the epic story of an obstinate family of gyppo loggers embroiled in conflicts with each other and their community. The novel takes place in the fictional town of Wakonda on the Oregon Coast and is a dense, sprawling, manic 600-page book with multiple narrators (sometimes within the same paragraph!), looping storylines, and stream-of-consciousness explosions of nature that pretty much make it the greatest novel set in the Pacific Northwest. Many readers never finish Sometimes a Great Notion, but those who do become fanatics and read it like scripture.
As we talked about the book and the movie, a thickly bearded man wearing a red baseball cap emerged from an alcove sheltering the video poker machines. He moved toward me holding a Hamm’s can and sat next to me at the bar. He said he had a story, a story about Paul Newman, who starred in the movie. Would I like to hear it? Yes, I would. I ordered him another Hamm’s. He appeared anywhere from 40 to 70 years old, or what I call OTA, Oregon Tavern Age.
The story went: one rainy night in 1970, the man was drinking in a tavern in Toledo, eight miles east of Newport. In walked an unaccompanied Paul Newman carrying a chainsaw. “He was wearing a fake chest,” said the man. The man explained that Newman wore some kind of padding under his shirt. That Newman still wore the padding and carried the chainsaw meant he might have come right off location in and around Toledo, where many scenes were filmed.
According to the man, Newman didn’t say anything. The patrons recognized him, because, well, at the time he was the biggest movie star in the world. He fired up the chainsaw, sawed the legs off a pool table and sent the slate crashing to the floor. Then he left without saying a word.
“C’mon, you’re bullshitting me!” I said. I reminded him of the scene from the movie where Newman’s character enters a union office with a chainsaw and cuts up the place.
“I know that scene,” he said. “That was acting. I was in a bar in Toledo. Newman was there. He was drunk out of his mind. I have no reason to lie. I don’t even know you.”
A few minutes later, the man disappeared and I never got his name.
I didn’t investigate this fantastic story back then, but knew one day I would undertake a mission to discover if Paul Newman really did enact the greatest drinking story in Oregon history.
That mission is over, and in my new book, Sometimes a Great Movie: Paul Newman, Ken Kesey and the Filming of the Great Oregon Novel, I hunt down the legend and discover the truth.
Matt Love wants to buy you a beer. But first you have to do your part. Love is making available 300 hardback versions of Sometimes a Great Movie as part of three one-of-a-kind packages that will help finance the book.
The $100 “Deluxe Package” will land you a numbered and signed hardback book and an original black-and-white photograph of a studio publicity still or a color Polaroid taken by a local during the film’s production. The photos for these 65 packages will be chosen at random, but each is guaranteed suitable for framing. Purchasers of the Deluxe Package also receive an invitation to join a one-time-only guided tour of the Stamper House, on the Siletz River; a special letterpress bookmark; recognition at the book launch at Powell’s on May 25; a seat in Portland’s Hollywood Theater for a screening of the film and a can of Olympia beer, the film’s beer of choice.
The $75 “Grand Package” lands the hardback, the house tour, the bookmark, recognition at the release, the movie and the Oly. And $50 buys the “Basic Package,” a signed hardback and the bookmark.
Visit Nestucca Spit Press for ordering details, and if you’re not interested in the Oly, Sometimes a Great Movie comes out in paperback in May. Look for it at your local independent bookstore or visit Nestucca Spit Press.
You can also toss your hardhat into the ring and win a hardback copy of Sometimes a Great Movie right here at NW Book Lovers. Leave a comment on this post with your Sometimes a Great Notion story. Anything goes, from selling Paul Newman a fudgesicle to that thesis you wrote in college. We’ll select the winner at random and let you know.
A man in the corner of the Bay Haven has been the subject of many stories over the years because he (or perhaps a collection of “he”) always seem to appear just in time to save the day for someone. When “Sometimes A Great Notion” was being filmed, I was a young reporter/photographer for the Lincoln County Leader in Toledo and the Newport News-Times. I spent many interesting hours on filming sites. The agreement was that I could write about the filming, take photos of the area, but not of the actual filming. I never saw Paul Newman drunk, but I was present early enough in the morning at at least one site to hear the booze orders being given to a “runner” assigned to obtain the day’s supply. (No, I didn’t hear anyone making specific orders for specific actors). It was an interesting and exciting time in Lincoln County and I hope this author found the people with the stories—like former Siletz resident, Dean Fillmore, who could pass as Paul Newman’s twin and did all the logging scenes in the film. Maybe he was the guy in the tavern. But I’ve never seen him drunk, either! As for the guy in the Bay Haven—years after this film adventure, I had become an investigator and was in the Bay Haven trying to get information on where to locate one of the regulars. A nearly impossible task to say the least. I was assured that no one knew where this man lived and only the bartender would admit even possibly knowing him, As I was preparing to leave, a man came out of the corner, walked past me and stood in another corner near the door. As I started to open the door, he reached out and handed me a slip of paper. I found the witness moments later at the address written on that paper for me. I’ve always been a fan of Paul Newman’s work and held him in high esteem, but for the sake of “the Bay Haven Guy” I hope the chainsaw story was true.
Hey, this is awesome! I actually grew up in the movie house! My dad, Doug Woodall, owned it for about 10 years in the late seventies to late eighties. We have so many stories about that house. I remember my dad rebuilding the drawers in the kitchen because they were all painted on for the movie. The stair case rolled away from the wall so that they could move the camera equipment in there. Door would open to walls. My favorite things were the cane marks on the doors from when Henry Fonda would rap on everyone’s doors in the morning to wake them up. I just loved the house, and I loved the movie. I ordered the Deluxe Package, and can’t wait to receive it. Good luck to you, man.
I complained to a friend of mine when we were young that the book was dense, hard to read. She agreed, and told me that when Ken walked into the Health Food and Pool store in Springfield (where she was working and reading the book between customers) she slammed it shut and asked him how the hell he expected anyone to get through it. At the time, I thought that was amusingly audacious. Now I wonder how he handled such head-on criticism, but that part of the story is lost. And I’ve since grown to appreciate “Sometimes a Great Notion.”
NWBL thanks Grace, Wendy and Patricia for the amazing reader comments. I know the author was tickled–Grace, I think he actually found your original review of the film! Using our highly scientific and strictly controlled three paperclip process, Patricia Marshall was randomly selected as the winner of a limited edition hardcover copy of “Sometimes a Great Movie,” courtesy of NWBL and Matt Love.
I loved the book,simply because of the history, o Oregon” and of the logging industry, my son-in-law was a logger in the 60s
the bookwasnt easy to rea, Keseys novels weren’t, but this one was about logging
I was there during the filming. Graduated from Toledo in 1970. I lived by the sawmill south of town and used to fish off the floating Stamper sign in the river. My good friend Anne’s dad did the scene where they dumped the logs into the river. Perfect first time and no retakes required!