...They say DeLuise hung around the Deliverance set so much that he was actually banned from the last month of shooting. Apparently the nightly parties, fueled on cocaine and moonshine, got so out of hand Ronnie Cox threatened to leave and Jon Voigt fell out of character. It's also rumored that DeLuise and Ned Beatty ate the Banjo Boy.
Of course this was that backwoods Appalachian cocaine made from pennywort, kerosene, and whatever white chemicals they could get from the supply house down at the mine – what the old-timers called “alkali,” no matter what it consisted of. Then DeLuise got into Doc Cavendish’s supply of laudanum and all bets were off. Except for the bet on whether or not DeLuise would spend the next three days in a corrugated tin hovel with the windows spray-painted black. One of the craft services guys ended up penning a screenplay based on the experience, writing the lead role for himself. That young man was Lance Henriksen, and the screenplay would eventually become Pumpkinhead 6: Hollywood Harvest.
Of course these cast parties were just a precursor to the legendary, non stop bash which was Mel Brooks's Silent Movie. Nothing was certain when Liza Minelli and Marty Feldman were in the same room.
Interesting side note, the character Henrietta Fellerman in Pumpkinhead 6: Hollywood Harvest is based on Dinah Shore and her 3 day visit to the Silent Movie set. She would often poke her nose around the buffet but would never eat anything, complaining about the high salt content and the assortment of germs left by the "Arbuckle twins," as she called DeLuise and Beatty (also hanging around the set without a role, too blotto to know he wasn't performing.) One day when she was deciding on what she wouldn't eat, she took notice of the young Henrikson, who had finagled a job as a personal assistant to DeLouise.
"What a strange face you have, so distinct. You are young but it is already old."
Mrs. Shore’s comments really sunk in over the next year and Lance decided it was time to try and make it in Hollywood . He eventually landed a job with Spielberg on Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. This is where he met a 30 year old actor named Bob Balaban. The two hit it off immediately. Calling themselves Gin and Tonic, the two eventually got in trouble with both the studio and the law during shooting. When filming was done, they both vanished. They were actually only missing for 7 weeks, of which they can remember (and have recounted) three.
It would be years before Pumpkinhead 6: Hollywood Harvest would see production.
--Steve Kilian
--Pat McNulty
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