TV star, husband show off documentary at local college
Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, hosted Fayette County’s own movie premiere on Friday night, complete with an Emmy award-winning actress and a crew from the television show “Entertainment Tonight.” There was even the requisite red carpet. A well-dressed crowd of nearly 400 showed up at Penn State’s Maggie Hardy Magerko Auditorium for the first public showing of “The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania,” a documentary detailing the local fervor surrounding the coal queen pageant in nearby Carmichaels.
The film was produced by two-time Emmy award-winner Patricia Heaton, best known for her role as Debra on the show “Everybody Loves Raymond.” It was directed and written by her husband, David Hunt, and represents the first picture for their production company FourBoys Films.
Much has been made about the couple’s collaboration on the film, mostly due to Heaton’s character Debra, who is not often in agreement with her TV husband, Raymond, on the show.
“We made a good team, all joking aside,” Hunt said before the 8 p.m. premiere.
“In the end, we’re still here,” Heaton quipped. “We’re hanging in. Check back next week.”
This was not the official premiere of the film, which has been screened – and won awards – at several film festivals. It was, however, the first time for many in the area featured in the film to see the finished product. Heaton and Hunt were the main attraction at the event, which was preceded by a reception under a grouping of tents outside the auditorium.
“It’s really nice to come back on a night like tonight and share this with all those who took part in this and supported us while we were here,” Hunt said.
The movie follows local coal queen turned television actress Sara Rush, as she returns to Greene County from Los Angeles for the 50th anniversary of the pageant in 2003. Hunt and his crews filmed the documentary in Greene County over 10 days and the finished product is available exclusively through the online rental company Netflix.
It has been available online since early June and is doing “OK” and getting five-star reviews, Hunt said. The 90-minute film introduces viewers to the local girls competing for the crown and some of the more quirky characters surrounding the pageant.
“We like to call it our homage to small town America,” Heaton said. “One of the reasons we thought it would be great to do this is that America and Americans are not always perceived in a positive light in the media. We wanted to portray America as it really is.”
In his short remarks before the screening, Hunt told the audience, which included many of the people featured in the film, that he has had people tell him after seeing the movie that they had no idea people like them existed.
“You can take that as you like,” he added, earning a big laugh.
The film grew from a conversation between Rush and Heaton while out to lunch with friends in Los Angeles. Rush, who was coal queen in 1972, said she was heading home for the 50th anniversary pageant. After she finished explaining the concept of what a coal queen was, Heaton set the wheels in motion.
“We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Sara,” Heaton said, who herself was a second runner-up in a pageant in college. “She and I have been friends for a lot of years and I had no idea that I knew royalty.”
“Sara described Carmichaels and the pageant and the people and it made me think this would be a great slice of Americana to record,” Hunt said.
And, if audience reactions and a few early festival awards are any indication, he may have been right.
So far, Hunt said, 99 percent of audience reactions worldwide have been positive and he is “toying” with the idea of opening the film in a few theaters.
“I think this movie is going to have a life,” he said before the screening. “We have some other plans to develop the film into other things but that’s all I can say right now.”
Reports of other options mentioned for the film include cable TV rights and a musical stage play. Heaton utilized her “Everybody Loves Raymond” star power in promoting the film, making mention of it during appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “The Late, Late Show.”
While there was plenty of buzz over Heaton being at the premiere, she said some of that after seeing the movie some 40 times, the anticipation was reciprocal.
“That was one of the exciting things about this,” she said. “I was like, ‘I get to meet everyone that was in the movie!'”
The film has several humorous and touching moments, but perhaps the most standout character in the documentary was the stage manager from the State Theatre Center for the Arts in Uniontown, who seemed determined to make as many candidates cry as possible.
“The first night we arrived, we went to rehearsal and we ran into him and he blew me away,” Hunt said. “He was hilarious. I miked him and called Patricia and said, ‘I think I’ve got my movie.'”
Current Coal Queen Ronni Marie Kramer of Waynesburg was taking it all in on Friday, decked out in her crown and sash. Even though she was a few years too late to be featured in the film, she said the debut coming during her time as queen was a thrill.
“I had no idea the film was coming out when I was in the pageant. I’m really excited it’s my year and it makes it a bigger thing,” she said. “I knew it was a big deal but I didn’t think it would be anywhere near this.”