Specious Reasoning: Part 11: Accounts of the Life of Edmund Callipeaux

Contributors:
Edmund Callipeaux – artist, college instructor, lives in St. Louis Park.
Eleanor Katz – Master gardener, gambler, historian, lives in St. Paul.

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Edmund Callipeaux – 10 March 2009, 3:00 pm

In the summer of 1990, I planted a Red Peanut M&M tree on a beach in Haines, Alaska. I wonder how big it is these days? – EC

Haines, Alaska with Kidpowertool's Toyota Land Cruiser.

The beach in Haines where the Red Peanut M&M tree was planted, 1990.

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Eleanor Katz – 8 March 2009, 10:30 p.m.

Edmund Callipeaux began dating my daughter, LeTigre, during the summer of 1993. I remember him driving up to the house in his little blue pickup truck that he called “Truck 12” and he was wearing fire-engine red corduroy pants. Ten years ago this past January, LeTigre and Ed were married at the Ramsey County Court House. At their wedding party, Ed wore a fire-engine red leisure suit.

Not long after they were married, Ed and LeTigre traded in their beloved Truck 12 for The General. The General is a huge Ford F-150 pickup truck and its color, by coincidence, is fire-engine red. Ed is also the son of a St. Paul firefighter; a man who drove a fire engine for many years before retiring not long ago.

Soon after my daughter, LeTigre, finished her education, she and Ed bought a house in St. Louis Park, and one of the first things they did, after moving in, was too tear out some old carpet and put down fire-engine red linoleum tile throughout a main floor hallway. And recently, my daughter, Ed’s wife, LeTigre, had her stylist dye her hair red…not fire-engine red, mind you, but red nonetheless.

At this point in my tale, you may think that our subject will be the color red (or fire engines) – but it is not. These coincidental descriptors of pants, trucks, hair, and floors are meant only to predicate color itself as an element of my topic. And by color, I mean (more accurately) the sum of all colors, or, the color white. And more specifically, I mean to say that my subject is the movie White Fang.

The 1906 American novel, White Fang, written by Jack London, was made into a Hollywood movie back in the early 1990s. And tonight, it played on television. I had it on as background entertainment while I went about organizing my sitting room. I soon found myself intrigued by the story of the boy and his wolfdog, but moreover, I was captivated by the setting and surroundings that the movie was filmed in - Alaska.

Thinking back to stories of how Ed had traveled through Alaska prior to meeting my daughter, I decided to give him a call to ask if he had ever seen the movie.

Ed answered the phone and I said, “Have you ever seen the movie White Fang? The scenery is so beautiful…do you know if it was actually filmed up in Alaska? Do you know the movie?”

Without hesitation, Ed said, “I was in that movie!”

Silence

Now, I’ve known Ed for over fifteen years, and I’ve never heard him mention that he was an extra in the movie White Fang.

Ed continued, “My friends and I were completely broke, and without any cash, in Haines, Alaska. We were camped out on this beach when we met these people who said they were looking for extras for the movie. We thought, free food, 50 bucks a day; maybe we’ll meet someone famous. But the thing that really got us was, as an extra on a movie, all you do is sit around and eat all day, and you don’t have to do anything accept stand where they tell you. Plus, they dressed us up in olde tymey outfits...like we were gold miners. Considering all those factors, it seemed like a pretty good deal.“

Well.

I never.

Here I am, watching this movie, and all the while my son-in-law is one of the background players! Ed said that if I watched closely, he’s in a dogfight scene in a barn. He said that he was partially silhouetted by a window he stood near.

“Wow, I haven’t thought of that movie in years!” Ed mussed as we talked on the phone, “A bunch of my friends got more prominent camera exposure than I did.”

I happened to be taping the movie onto my VCR and I rewound the film and found Ed standing in front of a window during the dogfight scene - - exactly where he said he would be! How bizarre!

The following day, Ed came over to the house with a box of Girl Scout cookies (my favorite, the purple box, Samoas). Munching on cookies, we watched the dogfight scene and he said, “Man, I haven’t thought of this in years!” – EK

On the set with the wolfdog!