[Academy Awards audio clip]
"And the winner is ... Mary Steenburgen, Melvin and Howard. Nobody ever accused me of being a fast talker, but I'm going to try tonight because this supporting actress was supported by a great many people, a few of whom I would like to quickly thank. I'd like to thank my family in Arkansas for always believing, against all odds, that something like this was going to happen."
Randy Dixon: It's Monday, it's Ozarks at Large. I like Mondays now. It gives me a chance to come and fellowship with my good buddy Kyle.
Kyle Kellams: There you go. That's Randy Dixon with the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. And since it's Monday, we're going to go into the Pryor Archives. What we just heard — you could probably guess — was Mary Steenburgen. She's from Arkansas, a well-known actress accepting the Academy Award for best supporting actress in 1981. I remember watching that Oscars.
Dixon: I do, too, and was very proud. It was for a movie called Melvin and Howard, and she was just 28 years old, which is pretty impressive. She went on — in that speech she'd only done a couple of — this was her third movie, and she won an Academy Award. She thanked Jack Nicholson, who discovered her and put her in a movie called Goin' South.
Kellams: With also John Belushi. Wasn't a big hit.
Dixon: No, but it's a fun movie.
Kellams: It's a Western.
Dixon: It's a comedy. It's directed by Jack Nicholson, so it's pretty off the wall.
Kellams: What followed was an impressive career by Mary Steenburgen that continues to this day. Time After Time was one of her early ones. I loved that movie. It was with Malcolm McDowell, who I believe played Jack the Ripper.
Dixon: Yes. And they ended up getting married and had two kids. Think about the other movies she's done: Parenthood, the Back to the Future franchise. But I think what she'll always be known for is the stepmother of Buddy in Elf. She's had some great roles.
Now in 1987, she decided to put on another hat — as executive producer. It's a story of two things very close to her heart: Arkansas and trains. Let's get a little taste of this movie by listening to the original trailer from 1987.
[Trailer audio clip]
"Welcome to Clifford, Arkansas, the last of the railroad towns. A place where life is peaceful and the people are friendly. Haney and Leo have worked on the railroad for 36 years. They built their homes and watched the children grow up."
"Can I marry Charlotte again?"
"Look at the ring, daddy. It's the very same ring you had last time."
"It is. But he had it cleaned."
"Meanwhile, in a big city far away, plans are being made that will change Clifford, Arkansas, forever."
"I heard the papers were Southland's going air freight."
"They can't shut this line down. They're not going to shut it down. Leo's got a plan. He wants to tell you about it."
"They were talking about some stupid plan to steal a train."
"I want my job back, and I'm going to let him know about it."
"There she goes."
"I'll put out an APB on him for grand theft."
"He didn't steal the train."
"Sir, I think the vehicle is picking up speed. Is there any seat belts?"
Kellams: I saw this movie in the theater. It came to the mountains.
Dixon: I guess I did, too, because it was here. It was Arkansas-made, so we were very aware of it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I watched it again this week and really did enjoy it. Part of it was all the Arkansas you get out of it. There's a scene where a little kid is in the sheriff's office wearing a Hog hat, and just the dialogue and some of the characters could be anybody that we would know. Still do, here in Arkansas.
Kellams: And even if you're just hearing about this movie and you find it streaming, you're going to recognize a lot of people in this film. Wilford Brimley, Holly Hunter, Kevin Bacon — he's a youngster in that. And then, of course, Mary Steenburgen and Levon Helm from the Band.
Dixon: Some other ones I noticed — Clint Howard.
Kellams: Ron Howard's brother, who always gets a bit part in, I think, most movies made. And there's a guy, a character actor named Bruce McGill. I originally remembered him from Animal House. He played D-Day.
Anyway, they start filming the movie in Benton, and Good Morning America decides to come down during the shoot. Here's a segment from Good Morning America.
[Good Morning America audio clip]
"Production began on a movie called End of the Line. It's a story about what happens to a small Arkansas town when the railroad decides to just pick up and move out. But behind the scenes, End of the Line is really a beginning. It's the first film for 26-year-old director Jay Russell, who also co-wrote the script, and it's also the first time Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen has turned her hand to producing. They join us on location from a rail yard in Benton, Arkansas, along with Kevin Bacon, who also stars in the movie."
"Good morning, Mary. There's such a wonderful story behind this. Tell us how you and Jay came together."
Steenburgen: "Jay knew that I had worked with Miloš Forman in Ragtime, and Miloš was the head of Columbia Film School. So Jay wrote me and said, 'Can you put in a good word for me with Miloš?' I did. He got into Columbia, he distinguished himself there, and he's been sending me scripts ever since. We'd actually never met until a year ago when he sent me this script, and I called him. I told him it was wonderful, and he said, 'Good, I want you to produce it.'"
"Jay, as I understand it, Mary said, 'Send me something from within. Send me something from your heart.' And of course you sent her End of the Line. Why was this an important story for you to tell?"
Russell: "It was important because the basic situation of the story was one that really affected my life — my dad worked for the railroad all of his life, and as he was starting to near retirement age, the railroad that he worked for shut down. It was a strange thing that happened with our family. I felt it to be a compelling situation."
Kellams: You've probably seen some of the other movies Jay Russell has done since — My Dog Skip.
Dixon: I liked My Dog Skip.
Kellams: The Water Horse, Tuck Everlasting — that was a children's movie. And then Ladder 49, about firefighters. He has a wide range of stuff he's done.
They continued to talk to the group during this Good Morning America interview, and Mary just expressed her thrill at coming home.
[Good Morning America audio clip, continued]
Steenburgen: "My father worked for the railroad for 38 years. I think one of the reasons I responded to it was because it was like going home again. We're shooting this in the same town where Jay and I grew up. Our production office is where I had my first date. It used to be Shakey's Pizza, and everywhere I go it's deja vu. I knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, to make a film where I came from. The people here in this state — it's such an extraordinary place — I always wanted to speak about it. And he wrote the words, and we're all kind of providing the guts, and it's a wonderful piece."
Dixon: We mentioned Levon Helm is in this, and he really didn't do interviews. If you'll recall, you've seen the documentary Ain't in It for the Money — they never actually interviewed him in that movie. He wouldn't even do an interview with Channel 7. But I did find a cool clip from the movie. Do you know what catfish hogging is?
Kellams: You go in at night into lakes or swamps and catch catfish. You reach down into the underbrush or logs and grab them with your hand.
Dixon: We didn't call it hogging. I never did it, but I heard it called something else. Let's listen. Levon's going to explain.
[Film clip audio]
Helm: "I went down to South Arkansas last year. Some old boys down there wanted to go catfish hogging. They went down to a damn slough, worse than a creek. They know the logs that's in the damn thing. They get a boat, all of them hang their arm in that boat, ease along through that old scummy water. Damn snapping turtles everywhere. And they got up to that damn log, and they know every knothole in it, everything about it. One of them got in, got to the other end. Cagle had an army belt in his teeth, reached inside that damn thing. They tickled that damn catfish, got him started toward the big end, and Muck Cagle grabbed him right in his jaws like that and held his ass inside that log. He started dancing."
Dixon: That's a clip from the movie End of the Line, which came out in 1987. There was a world premiere in Little Rock. It was called the Cinema 150 — at Asher and University, a big domed theater. They had the premiere of True Grit there in 1968.
Director Jay Russell was there, and Mary Steenburgen came and was escorted by another Arkansas actor. I guess Malcolm McDowell was off shooting a picture. She was with Gil Gerard.
Kellams: Buck Rogers.
Dixon: That's right. Here's a report from Kelly Minton from KATV, out with fans at the premiere.
[KATV news clip]
Fan: "Show that we're not a bunch of backwoods hillbillies, that we can make a major motion picture just like Hollywood can."
Minton: "The fans were out early, lining the parking lot of Cinema 150. The governor arrived first."
Governor: "I think the involvement that so many of our people had in the movie is what was really special about it. I think it will present our state all over the country, maybe all over the world, in a very good light."
Minton: "End of the Line is about a small railroad town in Arkansas. It was produced, written and directed by Arkansans."
Steenburgen: "I think you just get the cooperation of a great place, and you get to come home and have a good time. I might get paid for it one day, but right now just having a good time."
Russell: "I'm excited now that I see everybody's here. I didn't think anybody was going to show up. They're all here. I'm happy everybody paid to get in."
Kellams: KATV did interview Steenburgen in 1987 and asked what had changed for her personally over her years in the movie business.
[KATV interview clip]
Steenburgen: "I think it gets harder because I don't like to repeat myself — I've tried not to do the same shtick, the same little character, over and over. I've tried to give great variety in my work. It's harder because I have two children. I really try to balance my life as a mother so that I'm a good mother and a good wife. That's harder than when it was just me. And yes, it does get more and more fun because it's a privilege to be able to do what I do for a living. I love it. I haven't gotten tired of that at all."
Dixon: We mentioned she married Malcolm McDowell, and that marriage did end. In 1995 she married Ted Danson of Cheers fame. He had two children from a previous marriage, and she is godmother to them.
What we're hearing right now is the soundtrack from End of the Line. When I was going through the credits, I noticed that the soundtrack had been written by Andy Summers, and I thought — the only Andy Summers I know was the guitarist for the Police. One and the same. He had written the soundtrack. Before that, he had written the soundtrack for Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
Kellams: Is that Bette Midler?
Dixon: And Richard Dreyfuss, yeah. So he was starting to build a career doing soundtracks. Then Weekend at Bernie's was on his resume. If you don't know what Weekend at Bernie's is about, the premise is Bernie is dead, and these young men try to party with him dead all weekend.
Kellams: And then there was a sequel.
Dixon: Yeah. It was popular enough to have a sequel.
This is kind of turning into a profile of Mary Steenburgen instead of the movie, but I want to make a personal plea right now, in capital letters: I would love to do a profile with Mary Steenburgen, but I need to interview her over the phone. Someone listening knows her and could let her know — the Pryor Center would love to do an interview with her. Even one of our in-depth interviews. She would be a wonderful person to add to the collection. As a matter of fact, she did do a lovely tribute for David Pryor on the occasion of his passing. It's on our website, along with the other tributes to him.
Kellams: Something you may not know about Mary Steenburgen: she's an award-winning songwriter.
Dixon: I did not know this. This is a wild story. She underwent minor surgery in 2007 and went under complete anesthesia. When she came out of it, she started hearing music in her head — over periods of time. She didn't know anything about music, so she took music lessons so she could write down what she was hearing. By 2013, she already had 50 songwriting credits. In 2017, she won several critics' awards for a song she wrote for a movie called Wild Rose. The song is called "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)," performed by Jessie Buckley in the film. This is the song co-written by Mary Steenburgen.
[Song: "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)" performed by Jessie Buckley]
Had to find my own way, make my own mistakes But you know that I had to go Ain't no yellow brick road running through Glasgow But I found one that's stronger than stone Ain't no place like home Ain't no place like home I'll just click my heels three more times There it all is, what's always been mine Ain't no yellow brick road running through Glasgow
Kellams: Randy Dixon with the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. Thank you so much.
Dixon: Thank you. I'll see you next week.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
