LOCAL ANGLE: We’re piecing together Bradford’s connection to
Hollywood (again).

George T. Howard of Peachtree City, Ga., writes, “I was
interested in the use of Bradford in the movie ‘Spartan.’ A few
years ago, I was watching an episode of ‘Northern Exposure’ and
Bradford was used in the story line. I was blown away so I wrote to
the producer and learned that one of the writers of the TV series
married a girl from Bradford. Her name was Margaret Anderson and
she was in my BHS class of 1943.”

We also heard from Max Birtcil of Glassboro, N.Y., “I noticed in
RTS over the weekend that someone else finally saw ‘Spartan.’ It is
actually a pretty good movie starring Val Kilmer and Derek Luke.
Val Kilmer plays a terse CIA agent named John Spartan who is given
a mission to save the First Daughter who has been kidnapped.”

“After a problem with a piece of the mission, Kilmer returns
home (to Bradford) but is eventually re-drafted into the hunt for
the little girl. He is found because of a picture (or piece) of a
feed sack from a feed store allegedly in Bradford (in the actual
play he is found at Mike’s Service Station – again in
Bradford).

“According to RTS a couple years ago, Mamet’s wife or
sister-in-law or something is from there. In fact, in 2000, Mamet
was working on a television series about a big-city cop who retires
to his former hometown only to be drafted as police chief there.
The working title of the series was to be, you guessed it,
‘Bradford.’ It never got off the ground.

“If anyone is interested, the actual script for the play,
‘Spartan,’ is available to read online for free.”

We plan to keep this information in safe storage for the next
time someone raises the question about Bradford’s link to movies
and TV.

ITCHY: Phil Smith of Murfreesboro, Tenn., has an interesting
footnote about all those old Bradford stores we’ve been telling you
about. He writes, “Without a doubt there was an X-ray machine at
Ash Shoe Store. I worked there 1952-1956 while in school. I was the
one always washing the curved windows on the front of the store. We
also had a monkey named ‘Itchy,’ believe it or not.”