By Fred Tarpley
Commerce, TX – As summer movies gain momentum, film audiences begin to take note of credits for local talents associated with Hollywood releases. Currently, Dreamworks' "Kung Fu Panda Two" credits David Walvoord, son of Mr. and Mrs. Dave Walvoord of Commerce, as lighting executive. His wife, Kristie Hanson Walvoord, appears in the credits for Disney's "Tangles" as an animation artist. Both hold degrees from Texas A&M-College Station in animation.
Plans are being made for area theater parties when the release date is announced for "Bernie," directed by Richard Linklater and starring Mathew McConoughey, Jack Black, and Shirley Maclaine. Local interest centers on Jerry Biggs, a Commerce-based movie/TV actor, who plays a judge, and Charles Janes Bailey, of Cooper, recently retired from teaching English at San Jacinto College and now continuing his acting career in Houston area theaters. In "Herbie," Bailey has the role of an over-the-top English professor. Biggs' signature role was as Roy Suggs, one of the three brothers hanged in "Lonesome Dove," the TV mini-series. Both actors hold degrees from A&M-Commerce.
Making connections with screen talents has been a Hunt County tradition since Greenville's John Boles was a leading man matinee idol; Donna Gail Sanders, a Greenville elementary school student was a screen test finalist for the role of Scarlett and Rhett's daughter in "Gone With the Wind"; and the daughter of Dr. W. B. DeJernett of Commerce was working in the M-G-M wardrobe department stitching gingham dresses for Judy Garland to wear in "The Wizard of Oz." Dr. DeJernett, a prominent physician, was credited with bringing the first railroad to Commerce and influencing his friend W. L. Mayo to move his college from Cooper to Commerce in 1894.
When the credits roll after the final reel, not all the names belong to folks from faraway places.