Originally Posted by
gary
This is a really hard question to answer but I’ll do my best. You have to understand I was 15 at the time this all started, 17 when we were shooting Night, so the whole thing was a bit surreal to begin with. The fact that I was working on a motion picture hadn’t really set in let alone did I have any idea it would become a Cult Classic. I didn’t even know what that term meant at that point and I think I could say that for the rest of the guys. We were very serious about shooting this film and at my young age I was very dedicated to the group and wanted to be as much help as I could be to the project. I wasn’t into second guessing the creative aspects of the film that was the older guy’s domain. I was primarily a worker bee along with guys like Vince Survinski. Not to say there was that great of a division I mean everyone worked but it was a small group that dealt with the story if you will. I was working with my buddies we were having fun. I think that was when I learned I wanted to be doing things rather than just talking about them. That was primarily why I was at the Latent Image in the first place. These guys were older and they were doing thing as opposed to my friends who were really just talking about them. I was really proud to be doing something other than working in the mill. Pittsburgh was still a big steel town at that point and that's where lots of people ended up. The closest film making was done in New York over 400 miles away. Film wasn’t totally magic to me because of the commercial work The Latent Image had been doing. We were a fairly well oiled unit by the time we got to Night having shot many TV commercials and other long form projects. There was lots of doubt as to whether Night would ever find a distributor and ultimately the public but Walter Reade came through with a deal and it would be up to the people to decide. The time between making the film and getting it in front of the public was a very up and down period to say the least. Even after its release it sure didn’t soar to the top of the charts. If it had been released in modern times it would probably never made it because it would have been gone before people found it. So now we are a year or so into it and still no Real success. I certainly wondered whether I would ever get my 600 bucks back! Then word of mouth started to take over and people kept coming to the theater and as best I can remember it was the Readers Digest article that put it over the top. People said they would forgive the grainy black and white look because it flat out scared them. It felt great to know it was working on the level it was designed. I remember the Image Ten getting letters from people in Europe saying they had seen it 11 times and love it. It was playing in Art Theaters over there and that’s when I started feeling a pride of accomplishment. That went on for some time before I realized I hadn’t made much more than my 600 bucks back so from an economic stand point it wasn’t all that rewarding and at my young age never felt it hadn’t reached the Classic Status it has today. I guess it took a lifetime of complements and comparisons, even up to the point of your question to make me understand how proud I am to have been a part of it. I have been all over the world and when people find out I was involved with Night they know about the film and can talk about it. Certainty coming back to Evans City and starting the festival has given me the biggest boost of pride. I have never been closer to the fans that made it the Classic it is and that’s a real rush for me. I am constantly amazed how it bridged generations to be just as popular with 20 year olds as it was for my generation in the late 60” and early 70’s. In many ways Night of the Living Dead is the American Dream and I’m living it. I would be ungrateful not be proud.
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