Serving as an extra in “Carny”

If you are in Savannah this week, watch out for  camera crews. A production company is shooting an ABC television pilot around Columbia and Oglethorpe squares, both along York Street.

The pilot, “Solving Charlies, follows two other ABC pilots that were shot in 2006 and 2007 but never made it on the air.

There’s no guarantee that Solving Charlie will make it to television screens either.

However, the city has a good record for inclusion in many feature films and productions. Both Forrest Gump and Vagger Bance were shot – in part – in Savannah.

And my husband, Mark, was an extra in the movie Carny, which was filmed in Savannah in 1980, when he was attending Benedictine Military School, a Catholic high school in Savannah.

The film, which was about carnival life, featured Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist of the group, “The Band”. “Carny” also featured another fine actor, Elisha Cook, Jr., who gained fame in the 1940s and 50s in such films as “Shane”, “The Great Gatsby”, “The Maltese Falcon” and “Sergeant York”.

Mark’s role was to walk around the carnival set and play carnival games when the camera rolled.  During one scene Mark is playing ring toss and Robbie walks up to the game, converses with the attendant, then walks away right past him.  He  got paid about $35 a day.