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Show Femdale redressed: Main Street takes on the nostalgic look of the late '40s for The Majestic. Film cameras roll to the call k of Action!" but the brightly painted Main Street setting is no Hollywood lot. three-bloc- 1 lollywood, in this instance, has come to northern California, into the heart of redwood country. It's not the first time the town of Femdale (pop. , 382) has played n host to the crowd, nor will it be the last. Femdale, a friendly mix of cowboys, loggers, dairy 1 silver-scree- farmers, artists, businessmen, mothers, dads, kids, and horses, turns out to catch the action each time a new of The Majestic Theatre, a gazebo, a diner, and other town dressings for The Majestic, a film about a blacklisted screenwriter, played by Jim Carrey. "They improved the town, says photographer Carrie Grant. Everyone was sad to see them go. So intertwined was the coastruction crew with the locals that at projects end the crew rented the town hall, hired a band, set up a bar, and invited the town for a potluck celebration. The whole town showed up, says Joe Koches, owner of The Blacksmith Shop. Femdale native Jack Mays, an artist who on an ordinary day sits on a portable chair sketching town scenes, sketched away as crews filmed outside The Majestic Theatre. Jack told me that from now on hes always going to include our theater in his drawings of Femdale, says Jim Behnke, executive producer of The Majestic. Everyone in the production, incl :ding Carrey, signed the finished art, which Mays donated to an auction benefiting Femdales Repertory Theatre. It may be old hat now but there was a time when Femdale folk didnt know a gaffer from a grip. When Salon's Lit, a miniseries about vampire invasion based on a Stephen King novel, was filmed in Femdale in 1978, film production Kinetic Sculpture Race contestants careen toward the finish line. was new to most townspeople. Annette Meitner, 15 at the time, lived in the house whose production cranks up, whether its on Main Street, in the picturesque cemetery, or around the bams, fields, exterior was used as the vampire home. All those or farmhouses. Residents often sign on as extras. When people from Hollywood really freaked me out, she a Dr Pepper commercial was filmed on Main Street says, then I discovered they spill spaghetti on their locals hired were in the late 1970s, many to dance shirts just like everyone else." and sing, I'm a Pepper. Youre a Pepper." Even some Hollywood loves Femdale because, among other of the town dogs were "Peppers." things, it Most recently, construction crews worked in Femdale last year for several months, building the facade in California, Page 8 American Profile is the the National Register of Historic Places. The entire village is a California Historic Landmark. And townspeople do more than watch movies being made. Mays, the artist, was the catalyst 35 years ago in what has become a wacky Femdale tradition the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race. Mays had chalall listed on lenged metal sculptor Hobart Brown to create a contraption to race down Main Street, and Brown encouraged others to join in. Entries had to be artistic and human powered no feet could touch the ground. tank with Mays arrived in a cannons that shot water and Styrofoam balls. Brown semi-Sherm- raced him in a pentacycle, which colas turtle another in racer a papier-mach-e lapsed passed that laid red and blue polka dot eggs. Some 10,000 people showed up to watch. Brown later expanded the event to a three-dacompetition from Areata to Femdale along city streets, across sand dunes, over Humboldt Bay, and through the mud flats to the finy, e, cross-count- ry ish line in Femdale. Wearing caveman garb, tuxedos, and other costumes, as many as 99 racers have shown up in contraptions for the Memorial Day weekend event. Prizes are minimal, so few care who wins. People do it for the glory," says Brown. Naturally, the event has been caught on camera. Not by Hollywood this time, but by hundreds of national and international television crews, including Good Morning America and the BBC. Some places just cant avoid the bright lights. Susan Casey is a freelance uriter from Venice, Calif THCnS,..: Victorian village according to the Los Angeles Times. The stores, galleries, and specialty shops on Main Street are " GETTING ) FemcL'j is 213 miles noptfi of $aiy Francisco. |