In the wee hours of a West Knoxville morning in 1981, Brad Reeves crept out of bed at his parent’s home to perform a pre-adolescent ritual many men still remember, a ceremony that alters boys-room conversations forever. He glimpsed his first bare breasts on TV. Even for 1981, the scenes weren’t especially pornographic, but to a ten year old boy, a close-up of a bountiful (and non-surgically enhanced) college co-ed peeling off a tight tube-top made an indelible impression.
But something was a little different about this late-night T&A schlock: authentic East Tennessee accents. Unlike breasts, you just can’t fake those, not accurately anyway, in Hollywood. The backgrounds weren’t the usual Los Angeles locations like Sunset Boulevard or Echo Park either. Instead, the scenes looked oddly familiar: the football game shots look like UT Stadium; in another scene the building in the background looks an awful lot like Greve Hall. Reeves wondered just what was this movie anyway?
Poster from the theatrical release. None of the women on the poster appear in either version of the film.
It would be 1999 before Reeves would learn that the breasts he saw (some of them anyway) were bared for the cameras right here in Knoxville. The January 1999 story on the film in the local alt-weekly put Incoming Freshmen right in Reeves’ wheelhouse with a big fat Made In Tennessee sticker. A film fanatic since age 13, Reeves founded the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound in 2005. Not long after, a copy of IF fell in his lap: “Soon after we started this archive, about 2006, a collection of Betamax tapes came in, and there was the Holy Grail, Incoming Freshmen.”
Glenn Morgan, who made Incoming Freshmen with fellow UT film student Eric Lewald, was in Knoxville earlier this month and stopped by the East Tennessee History Center, where the archive is housed. “My favorite filmmaker,” Reeves beams as he shakes the Morgan’s hand. Reeves, who runs TAMIS with his wife, Louisa Trott, is totally serious. TAMIS is showing the original “Director’s Cut” of Morgan’s film Incoming Freshmen at the Relix Theatre on North Central, as part of the Raven Records’ grand opening in Happy Holler June 16. Why would such a serious-sounding organization want to screen a bit of soft-core Knoxporn history?
“People have been whispering in my ear for years,” Reeves tells Morgan. “This movie has developed a cult reputation around town, and I’m glad to be able to show your version. It’s about time.” Except for a private showing of the original at the UT Student Center in 1977, this version has not had a public viewing. Around 2010, Glenn sent Cormac McCarthy scholar Dr. Wesley Morgan (no relation) a collection of his films, and Dr. Morgan passed them on to TAMIS. Reeves watched them all, mostly for glimpses of historical East Tennessee backgrounds, but the stash contained a DVD of the original edit of IF, which is 100% East Tennessee.
Thirty-six years ago, a group of University of Tennessee film students headed by Morgan and Lewald made a sub-low-budget 16mm feature film for the drive-in market. With a cast and crew recruited through open calls in The Daily Beacon, the duo stumbled their way to Hollywood “success.” Their production company, Hi-Test Films, eventually sold the movie to the New York-based Cannon Group in 1978, which edited it heavily, shot some new scenes, and released it in 1979. Morgan disputes the “porn” label. “It’s not even soft-core, our version especially. It’s more like mainstream now.”
Incoming Freshmen had one theatrical run, almost exclusively at drive-ins, but did open at the “hardtop” World Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. “ALL SEATS $2.00!” IF made the Playboy Channel rotation for a bit, and has been sold as part of several VHS, Betamax and then DVD package compilations, including Brentwood Media/BCI Eclipse’s Toga Party DVD 10-pack. The solo DVD is available on Amazon, as is the poster.
Not just drive-ins
How did this well-intentioned drive-in B movie become so disjointed and, well, bad? That’s Hollywood…
Morgan and Lewald met on the UT film committee in their freshmen year, and graduated in 1976 with two of the first three film degrees awarded by the university, via the College Scholars program. To fund their film, which began shooting in the fall of 1976, they hit up 10 of their friends for capital, initially borrowing about $13,000. What they did not know about the business end of filmmaking and, more specifically, film promotion, was considerable—but had they known more, according to Morgan, they might have never attempted the movie at all.
“Our naiveté paid off,” Morgan said. “If we had known how long it was going to be and all that was going to be involved, we would have been scared off.” The budding filmmakers self-focus-grouped at the Dixie Lee Drive-In, near what is now the intersection of Watt Road and Kingston Pike. The pair saw the R-rated drive-in market as the “lowest common denominator market,” needing no stars, car crashes or special effects.
Shooting in 1976
The movie itself is the story of Jane (played by Mary Moon), an innocent college freshman from the fictional small town of Sweetbriar, who comes to college on the bus and meets her worldly, not-so-innocent roommate Viv (played by Leslie Blalock), who attempts to teach her the ways of men and the college dating scene. From 2012 it’s almost a chick flick, with lots of relationship dialog between the roommates and between the boys they date. With Viv’s help, Jane eventually sheds her small-town attitudes towards men and ends up with a mysterious motorcyclist in front of a romantic fireplace.
Jane arrives at college
There are the requisite bare breast shots in the film, but nothing in the film is actually prurient. “We had trouble finding women in Knoxville who would take their tops off,” says Morgan. “Our breast-count was low.”
Both versions of the movie, but especially the original Hi-Test version, are filled with scenes of pre-World’s Fair downtown Knoxville and UT campus, with cameos by prominent UT economics professor Dr. George Spiva and local media personality Carl Warner. Morgan himself is hilarious playing a poli-sci professor. Much of the film was shot on campus, without the benefit of permission to use university property. “We asked for permission to shoot on campus, but no one knew how to give it.” Morgan says. “We figured if they didn’t know how to give permission….” The fooseball scenes were shot in the old L&N Tavern on Western, and the disco scenes, complete with lighted dance floor, were filmed at the long-gone Casino Royale on Cumberland Avenue.
Morgan films.
UT stadium, the pre-expanded version, also makes its film debut in the movie, although the college is never identified in the film. Jane and Viv and their dates attend a football game—actually the Tennessee-Kentucky game—and sideline footage is provided via a camera that was sneaked into the game wrapped in a quilt. The stadium is filled with skinny people in tan and brown.
Decades before the GoPro video camera was invented, Lewald and Morgan hauled an Arriflex 16mm camera aboard a Ducati and filmed US 129 from a moving motorcycle (followed by a second trip with a Nagra ¼-inch audio recorder). Morgan remembers the Cannon guy’s reaction to the motorcycle footage so dear to the filmmakers’ hearts. “He said ‘What’s with this motorcycle scene? Did you ride all the way across Tennessee?’” The negative of that footage, returned to the filmmakers by Cannon, is all that’s left of the original film stock. “It’d be expensive, but it would be fun to make a short film of just that negative, which would look fabulous,” Morgan tells me.
Filming on US 129 “The Tail of the Dragon”
The filmmakers premiered their version of the film for about 150 people at the UT Student Center. Through a distributor in Atlanta, Morgan and Lewald showed a “very unfinished” cut of the film to Cannon Group. Though not overwhelmed, Cannon did say it might buy the movie if Hi-Test couldn’t get anywhere with it. Morgan and Lewald—still in Knoxville—took out a loan (co-signed by some of the original investors) to finish the editing and improve their chances of finding distribution. Morgan made a video dub on the sly using equipment at the Knoxville cable TV company (his friend Jack Stiles worked there and now co-owns Raven Records) and shopped it around in LA, but got no bites. When their loan came due, they sent the video back to Cannon in New York, and got enough to pay back their loan, plus expenses. That video dub became the only record of the “lost” Hi-Test cut of Incoming Freshmen.
“Cannon wanted the movie for the title and the toothpaste scene,” he says. In the scene, Randy, Jane’s frustrated suitor, fantasizes about one of the tube-topped girls in the film (one of those women who would take off her top) while brushing his teeth and snaps out of his fantasy to find he has squeezed his toothpaste all over himself.
Cannon was a lower-budget film production company that had produced few critical successes, notably 1970’s Joe, starring Peter Boyle as a disturbed, hippie-killing blue-collar worker. Made for just $106,000, Joe earned nearly $20 million at the box office and received a best screenplay Oscar nomination. But for every Joe, Cannon cranked out ten versions of Cheerleader Beach Party.
A few months after the Incoming Freshmen agreement was signed, Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus purchased Cannon and took the company even further from films like Joe, and toward films like the Cannon version of Incoming Freshmen. During the Golan-Globus years Cannon cashed in on a river of B movies, including the Chuck Norris vehicle Missing in Action, the Death Wish sequels with Charles Bronson, and Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2, Electric Boogaloo. Cannon ceased to exist around 1993.
Cannon spent three days shooting new scenes in New York, and basically “threw out half our movie,” Morgan says. On a tragic note, Leslie Blalock, older sister to Knoxville meteorologist Scott Blalock, was killed in a traffic accident before the re-shoot. Cannon wanted her to be in their scenes, and brought Mary Moon to New York for the additional shooting. The director used a stand-in for the odd scenes in the film where “Viv” is seen from behind, a brunette hairdo only. Interviewed prior to the re-shoot, Morgan said of Cannon, “all they want to do is polish it a little.”
Cannon also liked Carl Warner as the lecherous professor, and invited him to New York to shoot additional scenes. But he didn’t go, and doesn’t appear in the Cannon release: “I just couldn’t go to New York at the time, with too much other stuff going on, so they shot without me.” Warner still likes the work he did, “I think I was a much better professor.”
The Cannon version of the film is dreadful, and embarrassing to the cast and crew, whether their part made the Cannon cut or not: gratuitous bare breast scenes, an obese, leering professor, thickly overdone, New-Yorker-stereotyped Southern accents, and total disconnection from the story lines in the rest of the film. Cannon also added a black “Step and Fetchit” character. “I guess they figured we forgot him,” Morgan says. After driving to New York with a friend, Morgan says his first viewing of the finished product was “the single most horrible experience” of the process. The L.A. Times review loved the Hi-Test actors and scenes, and wondered what the hell happened.
The Cannon version premiered in Knoxville at the Twin-Aire Drive-In, and Lewald and Morgan tried their best to put on a happy face for a Channel 6 reporter who interviewed them after the sold-out showing. Local reviews were mixed; one female cast member burst into tears. When Mary Moon (now Ballard) saw the Cannon cut, she insisted on a stage name, Ashley Vaughn. Mary says she really was the sweet innocent girl she portrayed in the movie. “My family thinks it’s a mortal sin to play cards on Sunday. When I saw the final, I had to change my name. It was kind of embarrassing.”
Morgan at the local drive-in premier
Morgan believes Hi-Test could have asked for three times what they got for the film and paid back all their initial investors and even some wages to cast and crew. In hindsight, Morgan says, the changes Cannon made might not have been necessary. “If we had waited (instead of selling the film to Cannon), we could have sold the movie to video and cable with fewer changes.” Of course, those markets didn’t exist at the time.
The pair subsequently found out from the director of the re-shot scenes that Cannon had made its money back very quickly, and ultimately made as much as $3 million off IF. The agreed-upon gross-receipts percentage never came. Years later, Eric Lewald got a call from another filmmaker who wanted to pursue a class-action suit against Cannon over non-payment, which Lewald declined to join. “Cannon would acquire the rights to these films and pay little or nothing up front, then distribute them world-wide and never pay anything else. It was a corporate tradition. We got a lesson in Hollywood accounting.”
Lewald still believes he and Morgan did well though. “People out here [in Hollywood], people really experienced and smart, still get left with nothing if they aren’t careful. We were young and inexperienced, and we managed to get a feature made, sold and distributed. And we got paid. Even if people never watched the movie, that alone helped open some doors.”
Making Incoming Freshmen was a magnet for talented, creative people at UT. And it brought together a great group of friends. Morgan, Lewald and Bill Nation have remained friends since the casting call. “Bill showed up at our cast and crew auditions wearing a Norton jacket, so we knew he was one of us.” Their friendship has weathered two businesses, multiple careers, motorcycles, families and Hollywood. They have been business partners in one form or another since 1986, and their motorcycle shop, Pro-Italia, celebrated it 25th anniversary this year.
All three are married and live in greater Los Angeles, and not the gritty part. They meet regularly for Pro-Italia business, but those meetings have a social component too. In 2011, Lewald, Morgan and Nation stole enough time to take two motorcycle trips together. Morgan told me “That’s been a great renewal of our original mission, which was to ride our bikes together. Starting and running the motorcycle shop took a great toll on how much time we actually spent riding our bikes.”
Still rolling after all these years
Morgan established himself as a video editor on music videos and documentaries, and features including Siesta and Wild Orchid. He’s currently supervising editing of the 10th season of Project Runway, and recently edited Gordon Ramsey’s Hotel Hell.
Glenn and Leslie Blalock
Eric Lewald was just in Knoxville for the first time in 20 years, and was shocked to see a bustling night-time Gay street. He’s been writing mostly animated, youth-oriented scripts since 1985. When Metro Pulse first reported on Incoming Freshmen in 1999, Lewald was writing a live-action version of the animated show Young Hercules for Fox Kids. Lewald and his wife Julia co-wrote 50 episodes of the show, starring a teenaged Ryan Gosling. Lewald’s current project is a Singapore-produced 3-D animated series called Dream Defenders, playing on the 3net cable network.
Bill Nation’s part in IF was one of many that didn’t escape the Cannon cut. Nation worked at the Knoxville Journal for two years before moving to California, where he assisted renowned fashion photographer Helmut Newton in 1985-86. “I was in awe of his simple style: usually a 50mm and one light. He didn’t take crap from celebrities.” Nation worked as a celebrity photographer himself, with some high-profile clients, until 1998. That year he did a career 180 and took on running Pro-Italia full-time. The shop consistently places among the top three Ducati dealerships in the US.
Glenn keeps in touch with many of the IF cast and crew, which, thanks to social media and cheap long distance, is easier than ever. He mails out wicked funny Christmas cards too. When he’s back in East Tennessee, his dance card fills up fast. When he was in town this month, Morgan had dinner with Roger Shinn, who was production manager and second-unit cameraman on IF. Shinn has stayed in touch with Morgan and Lewald since 1976. He still lives in Roane County, and would love to see the screening of “his” version of IF, but a much more recent film project takes precedence. He was director of photography for Brook Benjamin’s entrant at the competing Knoxville 24 Hour Film Festival on Saturday night at the Bijou.
Mary Moon (now Ballard) and was happy to hear the original cut was getting its due. She went to Colorado and then California after her film debut, but eventually “married well” and now lives in Chattanooga. Like most of the cast and crew I spoke with, Mary owns a copy of each cut of Incoming Freshmen. Three years back she took a copy to a friend’s who wanted to watch it on her new 40-inch flat screen. She took the wrong version.
Mary Moon and Eric Lewald
Carl Warner had a long and varied career in radio, television, newspapers and motion pictures, both before and after Incoming Freshmen. He was soundman for the films Oklahoma and Around the World in 80 Days and worked a stint as a UPI foreign correspondent in the 60s. He hosted a conservative talk-radio show on WETE in Knoxville in the 80s. “My 10pm to midnight show drew better ratings than all the other Knoxville radio programming combined,” he claims. In 2011 Warner was elected Anderson County State Constable. “When my term expires I’ll be 90, and I’ll probably run again.”
Carl Werner as professor
This Saturday evening, some of the motorcycles parked across North Central from the Relix will sport “Not Art” stickers. Viewers should remember that this film should wear the same warning. Incoming Freshmen was never intended to be a film festival entry or art-house feature (nor an XXX sleaze reel). These bright young people weren’t trying to be Andy Warhol or Larry Flynt. They were just trying to get a feature film produced and distributed. They were successful.
Morgan is happy that the original version of Incoming Freshmen is getting a public showing after all these years. “It’s about damn time. Everybody liked, and was proud…well, wasn’t embarrassed about being in the original. It’s what they thought it was going to be.” In truth, the original version is grainy, low tech, and of pretty crude production value, even by 1976 standards, and the audio loses synch from time to time. Morgan says he rarely watches the film anymore, but still likes it: “Hell, for me it’s a home movie.” Lewald went a bit further. “Both of us remember it as the greatest year of our lives.”