Aaron

Well written, to say the least, and sad as hell.

Thank you.

I observed an interesting event concerning Malone that was very reminiscent of some of the above.

Karl had been signed by JB Hunt trucking to be their spokesman and the national commercial was filmed in SLC. A large crew was set up on location, the Ad agency people were all there, the producer and director were ready to roll, the honcho’s from JB Hunt were in from Arkansas, it was a big shoot with a lot of money rolling out the door every minute.

Karl was a not show! No notice, not thank you man, no nothing. A few phone calls went out to his lawyer and an hour or so later Karl and his mouth piece finally showed up.

The VP from JPHunt (a billion dollar company) was a short Italian looking fellow about 5′10″ tall and the same wide who didn’t have much to say. He looked like a guy that central casting would send over to read for a part in a gangster movie.

Karl, his mouth piece and this honcho from JBH went into a private office at the trucking terminal where the shoot was taking place, just the three of them. Within minutes the walls started to rumble and shake and the distinctly east coast sounding voice of the obviously bad ass Italian kept getting louder and deeper and more ominous. Individual words were unintelligible but there was no doubting who was conducting the meeting. Then it all went quite and pretty soon they all came out. The Italian had a nonchalant look on his face but was twirling his ring.

Karl and his mouth piece both looked a bit humble and hang dog, the later looked maybe a shade or two paler than when he walked in, they got in their limo and sped away.

After the producer and Italian got together for a few minutes the producer told the crew that they could wrap for the day but return the same time tomorrow. He also informed them that they would be paid double for the day in addition to their regular pay for the next day. Three days pay for a one day of actual work! Pretty good deal for the crew as it turned out.

The next day Karl, and the mouth piece, were both 15 minutes early for the shoot. The production company also got a check directly from Karl for the full amount of the previous day’s shoot.

Other than day one, the shoot went great, Karl was spot on with his performance, he was cheerful and friendly to the crew and staff, He looked great on camera and JBHunt’s VP looked on from the side line with a very pleased look on his face. Karl and JBHunt went on to have a happy couple of years relationship and parted on good terms as far as I ever heard.